Singtel says Optus CEO needs time to fix issues after emergency call outages in Australia
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The recent outages have deepened Optus' reputational crisis and intensified scrutiny of its governance.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY - Optus’ chief executive will need more time to get the house in order, the boss of parent Singtel said on Sept 30, after back-to-back outages of its emergency call services
The two outages that occurred less than a fortnight apart affected thousands of Australian customers and have been linked to four deaths.
The incidents deepen Optus’ reputational crisis following a 2022 cyber attack that compromised data on millions of customers, and a A$100 million (S$85 million) penalty imposed this year for sales misconduct.
Singtel boss Yuen Kuan Moon met Australian authorities on the morning of Sept 30, amid calls from some analysts and lawmakers for Optus CEO Stephen Rue to resign and Optus to be stripped of its operating licence.
Asked by journalists whether Mr Rue still had his support, Mr Yuen said it would take time to fix the problems at the No. 2 Australian telecoms firm.
“We brought in Stephen 11 months ago to transform Optus, to really address the issues that we had since 2022-23,” Mr Yuen told reporters in Sydney after a meeting with Communications Minister Anika Wells.
“It is very early days. It takes time to transform a company.”
Singtel, majority owned by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, saw its shares fall as much as 2 per cent in early trade.
The latest disruption on Sept 28, caused by a faulty tower south of Sydney, interrupted emergency calls and affected around 4,500 people.
Optus said in a statement late on Sept 30 that equipment made by Sweden’s Ericsson used in a cell tower south of Sydney “did not appear to operate as it should” on Sept 28 by failing to detect that 4G services were offline.
The statement added that both firms were working to understand the outage’s root cause, and a review of all Ericsson equipment used by Optus found “what has occurred on this cell site is an anomaly”.
The Sept 28 outage came just 10 days after a botched firewall upgrade triggered an outage lasting 13 hours that disrupted triple-zero emergency calls in two states and the Northern Territory and was linked to four deaths.
Optus chairman John Arthur said the failures were not caused by a lack of investment from owner Singtel. Mr Yuen said the deadly outage was due to a “people issue”.
“The (Sept 18) incident is due to a people issue and it takes time to transform and change the people,” he said.
Ms Wells, the communications minister, said there was a “very serious lack of confidence” in Optus to deliver triple-zero calls.
“The CEO of Optus now needs to work with their parent company Singtel on the systems and holistic change required within their own company to give that confidence back to Australians,” she said.
She called for an external party to review its systems “so Australians can take advice not just from Optus themselves”.
In a later statement, Optus said consulting firm Kearney had been appointed to immediately begin providing external oversight, quality assurance and verification of its mobile network.
Former Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin was ousted over a nationwide outage of Optus services in 2023.
Mr Rue took the reins in November 2024 and was tasked with improving service standards for customers. REUTERS
