Triple-zero calls were down for eight hours longer than Optus initially stated following a network upgrade that resulted in three deaths, authorities have revealed.
Optus admitted to the SA government that calls were out of action for 10 hours on Thursday. SA police conducted welfare checks on 150 people whose triple-zero calls failed throughout Friday night. SA police confirmed two deaths, an eight-week-old boy from Gawler and a 68-year-old woman from Adelaide, during the outage. The third death linked to the incident, involving up to 600 attempted triple-zero calls, was a 74-year-old man in Western Australia.
Labor minister John Carey called the incident “shocking and completely unacceptable,” adding that WA police are conducting safety checks on calls that did not go through. Optus, according to SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, failed to promptly inform authorities, which “beggars belief.” Malinauskas spoke directly with Optus CEO Stephen Rue to rectify the information flow issue.
Federal communications minister Anika Wells deemed the incident “incredibly serious” and expressed sorrow for the families affected. Optus failed to ensure emergency service calls were carried and will be held accountable, she added. The incident occurred almost two years after a similar nationwide outage in November 2023 led to a $12 million fine for Optus.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/20/optus-network-outage-in-which-three-people-died-lasted-eight-hours-longer-than-telco-initially-said
