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Singtel and Optus Chiefs to Face Communications Minister Over Fatal Triple‑Zero Outage

The meeting follows Optus’ admission that a botched firewall upgrade blocked about 600 emergency calls over 13 hours, an error the company says stemmed from staff not following required steps.

Overview

  • Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, Optus chair John Arthur and CEO Stephen Rue will meet Communications Minister Anika Wells on Monday in Sydney.
  • Optus says the Sept 18 outage, which affected South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, has been linked to three deaths.
  • CEO Stephen Rue attributed the failure to human error during a firewall upgrade, with calls not diverted as required and at least five customer warnings not escalated.
  • The Optus board appointed Dr Kerry Schott to lead an independent review into the causes and Triple Zero operations, with findings due before year‑end and to be made public.
  • Regulatory pressure is intensifying as ACMA investigates and the minister flags further penalties, a day after the Federal Court ordered a A$100m fine over past unconscionable sales conduct.