Key facts
- Optus experienced a 76-minute network outage on Friday.
- The outage affected voice calling services in parts of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.
- Some customers experienced intermittent call dropouts.
- Optus apologized for the disruption.
- The incident follows a similar outage in 2023 linked to two deaths.
- Optus was fined A$12 million in 2024 for failing to provide emergency call services during the 2023 outage.
Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications provider, issued an apology on Saturday following a 76-minute network outage that occurred on Friday. The technical glitch impacted voice calling services across parts of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory, causing some customers to experience intermittent call dropouts and disrupting emergency services calls.
Communications Minister Anika Wells stated on Sunday that "no piece of infrastructure be it roads, bridges, poles, wires is 100% resilient" and that "What we need to do is make sure these systems are as resilient as we can possibly make them." Investigations into the outage have begun.
This latest disruption follows a significant network issue in 2023 that left hundreds unable to contact emergency services and was linked to two deaths. In 2024, Optus was fined A$12 million by regulators for its failure to provide emergency call services during that 2023 outage. The company also experienced a cyberattack in 2022 that compromised the data of around 9.5 million Australians.