Australian telecommunications company Optus has suffered another technical failure causing interruptions to the “000” emergency service less than two weeks after the previous incident.
The latest outage occurred at a mobile tower in Dapto, Wollongong, New South Wales, last Sunday from 3:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., affecting approximately 4,500 users. At least 12 emergency calls were unable to connect. While some callers were later confirmed safe, Optus issued another apology and pledged to cooperate with authorities for a safety review.
This marks the second “000” failure since September 18. That earlier incident was caused by a firewall upgrade that was not carried out according to standard procedures, resulting in around 600 emergency calls nationwide failing to connect and reportedly linked to three deaths. CEO Stephen Rue admitted the outage was due to “human error,” though he denied that insufficient investment by parent company Singtel was a factor. The incident sparked calls for his resignation from opposition parties and the Greens.
Adding to public concern, Singtel announced on the Singapore Exchange, just a week after the outage, a stock bonus of over 32,000 shares—worth approximately 137,000 Singapore dollars (around 159,000 AUD)—to an employee, drawing criticism over timing.
Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon has now arrived in Sydney and will meet with Rue and the board chair to discuss further reforms and accountability measures with the government.