Overview

• The independent review will probe the firewall upgrade Optus says triggered the September 18 failure and examine how triple‑0 calls are managed and monitored on its network.
• Optus says five customer warnings to its offshore call centres about failed triple‑0 calls were not escalated, which the company has acknowledged was unacceptable.
• The report, commissioned by the Optus board and chaired by Kerry Schott, is due by year’s end and will assess compliance with policies, procedures and legal obligations.
• Regulators are scrutinising the incident, with ACMA criticizing Optus’ delayed, perfunctory and partly inaccurate initial reports and the government weighing stronger enforcement.
• Analysts expect reputational damage and customer churn, while critics note Optus had left about a third of 2023 outage recommendations unimplemented when the latest failure occurred.