It will be interesting to see what the “significant consequences” Optus will face. Apart from massive fines and compensation to customers, I think the telco could also be restricted from bidding for spectrums in future auctions.
Broken Hill in NSW was identified as having issues - I’m assuming Broken Hill is tied into SA’s network?
The telco’s should be torn a new one, if they’re running infrastructure like thiis and its not performing.
Shouldn’t 000 calls be structured so that if it can’t get through Optus or Telstra, it automatically gets rerouted through the other so that there is some redundancy built into it?
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Yeah thats the part that has confused me with this event occuring
Wasn’t it a case of the network failing so the call wasn’t connected in the first place?
I thought the Optus failure only impacted 000 calls, not general calls?
This is how its meant to work but for whatever reason Optus has still managed to have the system fail.
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Thanks, I would have thought that the routing could have been done at the NBN/wholesale level, so if it detects the call not getting through on Optus, it then sends it to Telstra? (or vice versa as required). Maybe that’s just being too idealistic.
Yep. When Cyclone albo happened a lot of the Optus towers stopped working and the only calls you could make (if you were with Optus) was 000. The triple 000 system would use Telstra or what every it could to connect.
Mobile networks are different to the landline networks also I think in terms of routing but for mobiles they’re definitely meant to override and join on any network it can receive a signal on for both the local emergency numbers (000, 999, 911 etc…) and the international 112 which should work in any country and on any network as long as your phone matches the frequency so it can get a signal.
This one here sounded like it was a software upgrade to a router which failed which sounds like it would be more of a core infrastructure thing and it sounds like procedures weren’t followed according to some reports but no idea whether that means someone went rogue and thought they knew what they were doing and it went bad or whether redundancies and failovers didn’t kick in or what. Either way, this is going to get messy and we won’t hear of all the job losses but I reckon there’s going to be a few techs looking for new jobs but it will keep going up the chain until the CEO is gone too.
Hopefully when things are found out, it is looked at to make sure that it can’t happen again and so that more failover checks and switching can occur to make sure that things get through - also the call centres not reporting it either are going to be copping a lot of the blame also. I reckon the CEO will be out by the end of the week but this is going to take a while to get to the bottom of it and there will be a lot of casualties and penalties.
Condolences to the families of those who lost their lives through this tragic event also.
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I was thinking maybe there should be a second network that is assigned only for 000, and everyone should be able to access that, but then realised that’s not going to work as you’d basically need a 2nd SIM or networks to pass on that capability.
My understanding of the way 000’s redundancy works is that if you lose your signal altogether and/or are out of range that it will try all other networks to make the call.
I don’t know for sure so I could be wrong here but it sounds like the phones still had a connection to Optus during this outage but the calls weren’t going anywhere. That’s a very different scenario.
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ACMA statement on Optus Triple Zero investigation
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is deeply concerned that there has been another Optus outage affecting emergency call services.
Australians must be able to contact emergency services whenever they need help. This is the most fundamental responsibility every telco provider has to the public. When an emergency call fails to connect, the consequences for public health and safety can be devastating.
Following the Triple Zero outage on 18 September 2025, the ACMA has commenced an investigation into Optus’ compliance with emergency call service regulations and other related rules.
Under these regulations, telecommunications carriers and carriage service providers (CSPs) must ensure that emergency calls are successfully carried to the emergency call service at all times.
They must also undertake welfare checks on callers who made unsuccessful emergency calls during a significant network outage.
These are the same rules that the ACMA found Optus breached in 2023 during a nation-wide outage. Optus was penalised $12 million by the ACMA for these breaches.
In this new investigation the ACMA will also investigate Optus’ obligations to:
- communicate information about the outage to customers and the public, including putting relevant and up-to-date information on its website and using apps, email, SMS, other media or call centres to keep the public informed
- notify the emergency call person (Telstra) as soon as possible about a significant network outage
- communicate information about the outage to other stakeholders including the relevant ministerial portfolio department, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, the National Emergency Management Agency and the ACMA.
These legal obligations are set out in the:
- Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019
- Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024
- Industry Code C536: Emergency Call Service Requirements
The ACMA is seeking detailed information from Optus about the cause of the outage and the actions it took in response. The ACMA expects that Optus will cooperate fully in this investigation.
The ACMA will make its findings public once the investigation is concluded.
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A fair bit of talk about how useless ACMA is. A toothless tiger as it were - allowing the industry to set the rules and base it on “best endeavours”.
As the ongoing slide of Australia’s telcos and media companies into the toilet continues, I think it’s time ACMA is either given new powers, or is scrapped and replaced with an authority that has some balls and sharp teeth.
If they just slap Optus with a fine, then yes, time for ACMA to go.
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Miller called for the federal government to rule out changing Australian copyright law to give a text and data mining exemption for artificial intelligence companies to train on copyrighted work without paying media companies, film studios, artists or authors.
Austin Turpin, founder of Sydney computer recycling company Fliptech, discussed the end of technical support for Windows 10 on Seven’s midday news today.
not happy with that report
yes Win10 is now EOL, but they fail to mention extended security updates that MS is offering, and the lie of a gradual decline in performance.
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