Treasurer Jim Chalmers has urged Australians not to lose faith in the triple-zero emergency system despite Optus suffering its third outage in two years.
The latest disruption occurred in the NSW Dapto region, where around 4500 customers were unable to make calls between 3 a.m. and 12.20 p.m., including nine calls to triple zero. Optus confirmed all affected callers were safe, with some calls being accidental or tests, and services have since been restored.
The telco is already under heavy criticism for a major outage on September 18 that disrupted more than 600 emergency calls and was linked to three deaths.
Chalmers described the failures as “shocking” and unacceptable, adding that the government and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) are conducting thorough investigations.
NSW Premier Chris Minns also condemned the outages, saying Optus owed the public “full and transparent information” while stressing the importance of reliable communications for emergency services.
Optus CEO Stephen Rue has admitted that human error during a firewall upgrade caused the September 18 blackout. Meanwhile, Communications Minister Anika Wells has warned that “consequences” are likely, with ACMA’s probe ongoing.
Optus previously received a $12 million fine over a 2023 triple-zero outage that impacted more than 2100 customers.
