Four triple-0 calls fail to connect in 20-minute nationwide Optus outage
Four triple 0 calls to emergency services failed during a new nationwide Optus outage; just a few months after a similar glitch turned fatal as hundreds of emergency calls were unable to be placed on the network.
Optus confirmed that the outage affected customers nationwide at around 8am on Monday but was resolved within 20 minutes.
The Singapore-owned telco carried out three welfare checks and a fourth was referred to NSW Police after customers were unable to call Triple-0 from their mobile phones during the outage.
NewsWire understands the fourth person has been identified and is safe.
An Optus spokesperson said some customers may experience intermittent issues with their mobile service.
“This has now been resolved and services are working as expected,” a spokesperson said.
“We thank our customers for their patience and apologize for any disruption we have caused.”
Many customers shared on social media that they were unable to receive or make calls during the outage, but were able to use data and send text messages.
Newswire understands the outage has affected approximately 145,000 services across Australia.
Downdetector showed some customers were still reporting problems Monday evening.
NSW Police has been contacted for comment.
In September last year, two people died after hundreds of calls to emergency services failed during a 14-hour outage on the Optus network.
Investigations into the fatal outage found that “systemic and widespread problems” at the telecommunications company led to the fatal failure.
It was also found that some older model mobile phones no longer default to other networks when users try to call emergency services during outages.
The incident follows other failures at Optus following a cyberattack in 2022 that exposed data on 9.5 million Australians.
A nationwide outage the following year disrupted services to individuals and businesses, resulting in 2,145 people unable to access Triple-0.
An ACCC investigation into sales practices found Optus targeted hundreds of vulnerable customers between 2019 and 2023, resulting in a $100 million fine for the telco.
