Anger is coming to a boil in Australia. This frustration comes on the heels of Australia’s biggest telecommunications outage, which has deeply affected Optus, one of the countries’ largest telecoms. On a recent Tuesday, a protest triggered the perfect storm that stranded hundreds of people and prevented them from accessing emergency services. For a shocking 13-hour stretch, better than half the nation experienced this devastating communications failure. Tragically, that outage is directly connected to several deaths, leading to public outcry for accountability and systemic change.
The blackout mainly affected South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. As a consequence, more than 600 emergency service calls were dropped. Today, authorities in Western Australia announced that a fourth person was likely dead. All of this tragedy came about because they could not get through to triple-0, the national emergency dispatch line. Today’s unfortunate incident, while tragic, is a meaningful reminder of the importance of telecommunications during emergencies. It has brought to bear serious concerns about the operational integrity of Optus.
Optus’s chief executive, Stephen Rue, has spoken out on the incident. He disclosed that the company did not know for the entire 13-hour period that it was out. He ascribed the disruption to a technical fault during a network upgrade. Rue acknowledged the gravity of the situation, admitting that Optus had “perpetuated an enormous failure on the Australian people” and would face “significant consequences” as a result.
“I would like to reiterate how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of four people who could not reach emergency services in their time of need,” – Stephen Rue
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been conducting an active inquiry into Optus’s practices. In the meantime, the federal government has penalized the telecom company more than A$12 million – over $8 million, £6 million. In her 2023 speech to the Press Club, Communications Minister Anika Wells called previous failures to connect people to emergency services “unacceptable” and “inexcusable.” She voiced her frustration that it had happened again so soon after a similar outage two years prior.
“You would be unsurprised to hear that I expressed my unbelievable disappointment that we were here again so quickly. Or here again at all,” – Anika Wells
Rue is committed to providing daily updates as new information comes to light. Then they promise the public that they’ll take new, proactive steps to ensure this never happens again.
“What I can assure you is that actions are and will be taken to ensure this does not happen in future,” – Stephen Rue
The backlash from this incident has created some of the most furious demands for accountability of leadership. Amid the ongoing crisis, some officials are calling for Rue to step down. The state of play is still very much in flux, as new investigations are announced and demands for transparency grow.