Overview

• Optus CEO Stephen Rue said a planned network upgrade on Thursday caused a technical failure that prevented some Triple Zero calls in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
• About 600 customers were potentially affected, the company said, noting normal calls continued, the specific fault has been fixed and the outage duration is still being established.
• During welfare checks, Optus says three households that attempted emergency calls were found to have a deceased person, and the company says those checks remain ongoing.
• Emergency agencies reported communication gaps, with St John WA saying it was not informed of issues and South Australia Police stating it is working through about 150 matters and not yet aware of death details in SA.
• Communications Minister Anika Wells called the lapse “incredibly serious” and promised a thorough probe, as Optus pledged full cooperation; the telco was fined A$12 million over a 2023 outage and could face further penalties.