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Government Warns Optus of ‘Significant Consequences’ as ACMA Probes Fatal Triple‑Zero Outage

Optus failed to promptly notify regulators about the 13‑hour failure.

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FILE - A customer waits for service at a Optus store in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
FILE - A customer waits for service at a Optus store in Sydney, Australia, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Baker,File)
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 21: Pedestrians walk past an Optus store in the CBD on November 21, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. Optus' CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin stepped down on Monday after an extended outage last week caused millions of Australians to be disconnected from the network, with no access to emergency numbers for hours. The outage followed a hack that saw millions of customers' data shared online last year. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Overview

  • ACMA opened a formal investigation after 624 emergency calls failed over roughly 13 hours, primarily in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, with additional failures in parts of New South Wales.
  • Authorities say multiple deaths have been linked to the outage, with causation still under investigation; South Australia Police say the infant death initially cited is unlikely to have been caused by the failure.
  • Optus says a routine firewall upgrade triggered the disruption and admits established processes were not followed, with an independent review under way and new compulsory escalation for reported Triple‑Zero issues.
  • The telco waited about 40 hours to go public, missed several customer warnings because call‑centre staff did not escalate them, and sent perfunctory or inaccurate updates to ACMA, which was informed only after services were restored.
  • Communications Minister Anika Wells said Optus had “failed the Australian people” and pledged consequences as the prime minister noted the CEO should be weighing his position, with ACMA emphasizing its financial enforcement powers after fining Optus more than $12 million for a 2023 emergency‑call breach.