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Australia: Optus Outage Linked to Deaths After Emergency Calls Failed
A major Optus network failure that cut off emergency services for 13 hours has been linked to several deaths across Australia, prompting investigations into the company’s handling of the incident.
The outage, which occurred last Thursday, left large parts of the country without access to triple-0. Authorities confirmed that at least three people died during the disruption, while police in Western Australia believe a fourth death may also be connected.
More than 600 calls to emergency lines were unable to connect, with most reports coming from South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory. Some failures were also recorded in parts of New South Wales.
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue apologised to the families of those affected, describing the failure as “completely unacceptable.” He said the outage was caused by a technical fault identified during a network upgrade and admitted the company did not detect the disruption until hours later, despite complaints from customers.
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The company has faced criticism for waiting nearly two days before informing the public and for failing to alert regulators until the issue was resolved. The Australian Communications and Media Authority said the delay went against standard practice and called the situation “deeply concerning.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells also condemned the failure, insisting there was “no excuse” for triple-0 calls not connecting. She warned that the company would face significant consequences, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Optus chief executive should consider his position.
This is the second major disruption for Optus in two years. In 2023, the company was fined more than A$12m after another outage that cut emergency access for thousands of people.
Investigations into last week’s incident are still ongoing, with regulators vowing that steps will be taken to ensure Australians can always reach emergency services in times of need.
