Optus Apologises After Network Outage Disrupts Emergency Calls Across Australia
Optus apologised after a 76-minute outage disrupted voice calls and some emergency services across four Australian regions.
Optus, Australia's second-largest telecom carrier, has apologised after a network outage disrupted voice calling services and some emergency calls across parts of the country.
The 76-minute technical glitch on Friday affected customers in parts of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the company said in a statement. Some users experienced intermittent call dropouts during the disruption.
"We sincerely apologise to customers for the disruption," Optus said.
The incident drew a sharp response from the government. Chris Bowen, a senior minister in the centre-left administration, described the fresh outage as "deeply concerning" and said investigations had already begun.
"It's an obligation on our telecommunications companies to keep all their technology for triple-0 calls in the best possible working order," Bowen said in televised remarks.
Police in Victoria said they carried out around 40 welfare checks on callers affected by Friday's outage. A police spokesperson said there were "no adverse outcomes or issues of note."
The disruption is the latest in a series of problems for Optus, which is owned by Singapore Telecommunications. A network issue last year left hundreds of people unable to reach police, fire and ambulance services and resulted in two deaths.
In 2024, the company was fined A$12 million by regulators for failing to provide emergency call services to thousands of people during a nationwide outage in 2023. Optus also suffered a cyberattack in 2022 that affected the data of around 9.5 million Australians.