Optus Sued in Federal Court Over Major Network Outage Affecting Emergency Calls

Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications provider, faces a lawsuit in the Federal Court following a significant network outage last September that disrupted access to the emergency Triple Zero service. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has accused Optus of breaching its legal obligations over 1,000 times.

The ACMA's allegations center on Optus's failure to ensure that customers making emergency calls could connect to the service and that these calls were handled appropriately. The maximum penalty for each contravention could reach $250,000.

The outage, which persisted for nearly 14 hours, has been tragically linked to two deaths. During this period, a staggering 75% of the 605 attempted Triple Zero calls failed to connect. A review commissioned by Optus and conducted by executive Kerry Schott identified widespread failures contributing to the outage and hindering a swift resolution.

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Australians rightly expect that when they call Triple Zero, their call will connect. The circumstances of this outage meant that did not reliably occur, leaving people unable to connect to potentially life-saving services.

Schott's report detailed multiple critical mistakes made by Optus and its contractor Nokia during a routine network upgrade. It also highlighted that the Optus call center failed to escalate warnings from callers reporting issues with Triple Zero calls. The report recommended a complete overhaul of Optus's network operations, risk management, and internal audit functions, stating that the company's systems had "clearly failed."

ACMA Chair Nerida O'Loughlin emphasized the critical nature of the situation, stating, "Australians rightly expect that when they call Triple Zero, their call will connect." She added that the outage meant people were unable to connect to potentially life-saving services, underscoring that providing access to the emergency call service is a fundamental legal and public safety responsibility for telecommunications providers.

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Giving access to the emergency call service is not optional, it is a fundamental legal obligation and the most important public safety responsibility telecommunications providers have.