Singtel faces another Optus crisis with call outage that led to at least 3 deaths in Australia

SYDNEY – Singtel faces a fresh crisis at its Australian division Optus after the government started an investigation into an

emergency call outage that resulted in multiple deaths.

Last week’s network failure follows an Australia-wide outage at Optus in November 2023 that affected millions of customers – including some unable to make emergency calls. That blunder cost Optus a A$12 million (S$10.2 million) fine and the job of its then boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.

The latest incident at Australia’s second-biggest phone company, so soon after the last, now threatens the position of Ms Rosmarin’s successor as chief executive officer, Mr Stephen Rue. 

There is potentially worse fallout to come. At a press conference on Sept 22, Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said she will consider any required regulatory or legislative changes once the probe into Optus’ botched network upgrade is complete.

Ms Wells said she has spoken to Mr Rue to express her “unbelievable disappointment that we should be here again so soon”.

Optus accounts for about half of Singtel’s annual revenue.

Singtel shares fell as much as 2.5 per cent on Sept 22, before closing down 1.6 per cent, or seven cents, at $4.34. Trading was heavy with some 42 million shares changing hands.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would be surprised if Mr Rue is not considering stepping down.

“Optus’ behaviour is completely unacceptable,” Mr Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Sept 22. “Optus has obligations, as do other communications companies, and quite clearly, they haven’t fulfilled the obligations that they have.”

A spokesperson for Optus declined to comment.

According to Optus, a standard network upgrade on Sept 18 led to a technical failure that impacted emergency calls in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Optus said it did not receive any alarms that some emergency calls were not making it through, and that three people died. 

‘Fundamental responsibility’

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said on Sept 22 that it has started an investigation into Optus’ compliance with emergency call regulations.

“Australians must be able to contact emergency services whenever they need help,” ACMA said in a statement. “This is the most fundamental responsibility every telco provider has to the public.”

Phone companies must also check on callers who made unsuccessful emergency calls during a network outage, the same rule Optus broke in 2023.

Mr Rue said on Sept 21 that Optus will appoint an outside expert to lead an independent review into last week’s failure and that the facts will be made public.

“We will get recommendations of what to do and I’m determined that we will implement those,” he said in a televised news conference. One of the tasks of the internal review will be to look at the effectiveness of the changes that Optus put in place after the 2023 outage, he added.

Optus has begun monitoring so-called triple zero (the emergency call service number) call volumes and failure rates state by state, 24 hours a day, Mr Rue said.

It has also halted any network system changes. The company continues to investigate why it took 13 hours before it became aware of the failure, he added.

Mr Rue also disclosed that as many as five calls were made to the Optus contact centre raising concerns about the triple zero service early on Sept 18, but that they were not passed on internally.

“This is clearly not good enough and we are implementing a compulsory escalation process following any customer reports of triple zero outages,” he said. BLOOMBERG