Optus had argued that providing real-time updates on emergency call outages would impose a 'huge burden' just months before a major network failure left customers unable to reach triple-zero for 13 hours. The outage, caused by a firewall upgrade, affected users in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales last week.
More than 600 emergency calls failed to connect. Three deaths have been linked to the outage, with a fourth infant death in South Australia later deemed unrelated. Optus itself was unaware of the problem until 1.30pm on the day of the outage, despite earlier warnings from customers and emergency services.
The communications minister, Anika Wells, said neither her office nor the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) were told until 3pm, over an hour after Optus became aware. The public was not informed until 5.30pm the following day.
The communications failure came after Optus resisted new ACMA rules requiring telcos to share real-time information during outages affecting emergency calls. In an April submission, Optus said there was no technical capability for such sharing and that developing it would be a 'huge burden' and a 'significant resource impost on staff'.
The rules, finalised in June, are due to take effect in November, meaning Optus was not required to comply at the time. An Optus spokesperson said the company supports real-time notifications but noted that a 'live feed' system does not yet exist and would require significant coordination. ACMA chair Nerida O'Loughlin said the investigation would assess Optus's investment in network and processes.
