An Optus network outage disrupted Triple Zero calls across parts of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory on Friday afternoon, with more than 39 callers reportedly experiencing difficulties connecting to emergency services.
The outage lasted just over an hour, prompting police to carry out welfare checks on people who had attempted to reach Triple Zero during the disruption.
The incident has renewed concerns about the reliability of Australia’s telecommunications networks and the ability of customers to contact emergency services when a major network failure occurs.
Optus outage prompts welfare checks
Telcos have advised that when a mobile phone cannot connect to Triple Zero through its own network, it should automatically attempt to use another available network.
Callers who do not get through are being urged to try again and remain on the line for up to a minute while the phone searches for an alternative connection. The line may remain silent during that process.
The Optus failure came months after a widespread Telstra outage disrupted transport networks, businesses, health services and emergency calls.
That failure affected a network supporting about 25 million Australian mobile services and was Telstra’s third major national outage in less than a year. A critical software fault was blamed for the disruption, which also halted train lines and caused business transactions to time out.
Telstra conducted 639 welfare checks on people who had tried to call Triple Zero during the outage. Seven of those people required assistance after initially being unable to connect.
Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady apologised and said the company would investigate the failure and the measures needed to prevent a repeat.
“We will complete our investigation into the actions needed to prevent it from happening again. You have my commitment on that,” she said.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said she would “hold Telstra’s feet to the fire”, arguing that the company’s response had not been good enough.
The Telstra disruption followed a major Optus outage lasting almost 14 hours, during which hundreds of people were unable to contact Triple Zero. That incident was linked to two deaths.
The Federal Government has since strengthened regulatory powers, with telecommunications companies facing greater scrutiny and potential civil penalties over their handling of emergency calls.
RMIT telecommunications expert Mark Gregory has argued that Australia’s telecommunications laws need to be rebuilt “structurally from the ground up and in tune with the modern era”.
“We need to start again,” he said. “What we need to do is to rebuild the Telecommunications Act, the legislation and the regulations, and to make them fit for purpose.”
