Singtel apologises for Optus outage that led to 3 deaths in Australia
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The Optus network upgrade potentially impacted 600 customers in the states of South Australia and Western Australia, as well as the Northern Territory.
PHOTO: OPTUS
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SINGAPORE - Singtel has apologised after an outage affecting its subsidiary Optus
In a statement published on the Singapore Exchange on Sept 24, Singtel group chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon said the telecommunications operator is working with the Optus board and management to thoroughly investigate the incident and “prevent any future recurrence”.
He said Singtel Group is “deeply sorry” to hear about the incident, which occurred during a network upgrade on Sept 18, and caused a disruption to emergency call services.
“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who have passed away, and we know that Optus will get to the bottom of this matter,” said Mr Yuen.
The network outage potentially impacted 600 customers in the states of South Australia and Western Australia, as well as the Northern Territory.
13-hour outage
Optus CEO Stephen Rue said at a press conference on Sept 19 that three people were found dead after welfare checks were carried out on households that had attempted to make emergency calls through the 000 hotline.
The number is used for calling the police, fire department, or for an ambulance.
In total, three deaths have been linked to the 13-hour outage.
South Australia police said one of them was a 68-year-old woman.
The other two were men aged 74 and 49, police in Western Australia said.
Initial reports also linked the death of an eight-week-old boy to the outage, but the police later said the death was unlikely to be connected to the network disruption, as an emergency call was successfully placed immediately afterwards.
An initial probe by Optus found that established processes were not followed during the network upgrade, Mr Rue said on Sept 21.
Five customers had reported the outage through Optus’ call centre, but their complaints were not escalated.
Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Sept 22 that she would consider mandating regulatory or legislative changes once the probe into Optus’ network upgrade is complete, adding that she had expressed her “unbelievable disappointment” to Mr Rue.
On Sept 24, Optus said it has appointed Dr Kerry Schott, chair of both the Carbon Market Institute and the Competition Review Panel for the Australian government, to lead an independent review.
It is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, and the findings will be reported to the Optus board before being made public.
Yuen due to visit Australia on Sept 29
Mr Yuen will visit Australia on Sept 29, where he will attend a board meeting and face questions on whether Singtel Group is underfunding Optus, reported the Australian Financial Review on Sept 23.
In Mr Yuen’s statement, he said Singtel Group has invested more than A$9.3 billion (S$7.9 billion) into Optus – Australia’s second-largest telco – in the last five years.
A large part of that was used to build network infrastructure across Australia, and he promised that Singtel Group will continue to invest as needed for Optus “to provide reliable communication services to all Australians”.
According to Singtel’s financial reports, its investments in the Australian telco’s mobile networks were A$850 million in the financial year that ended on March 31, 2024, and A$613 million in the following period.
Before the latest crisis, Optus also experienced a nationwide phone and internet outage in November 2023. That outage affected critical services for consumers and businesses, as well as government, public health and safety infrastructure, resulting in then chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigning on Nov 20, 2023.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority fined Optus A$12 million in 2024 because of that outage.
