Australian telecom giant Optus has suffered another emergency call outage, intensifying public anger just days after a deadly nationwide disruption. The latest incident occurred on Sunday in Dapto, south of Sydney, when a faulty mobile phone tower cut services, including access to the “000” emergency line, affecting about 4,500 people. Optus confirmed that all callers attempting to reach emergency services were safe and said it was investigating the cause of the failure, which has since been restored.
The outage comes less than two weeks after a 13-hour network collapse on September 18 disrupted emergency call services across two states and the Northern Territory, a failure linked to four deaths. That incident was triggered by a botched firewall upgrade and marked the latest in a series of high-profile crises for the Singapore Telecommunications-owned carrier, including a 2022 data breach and a 2023 nationwide outage that prompted a Senate inquiry.
Australian officials have condemned the latest breakdown, calling it an “absolutely shocking failure.” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government has ordered the Australian Communications and Media Authority to conduct a “very thorough investigation,” stressing that such lapses “can’t happen again.” The disruption has deepened Optus’ reputational crisis and renewed questions about the company’s operational safeguards and accountability.
Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon is scheduled to meet Communications Minister Anika Wells this week alongside Optus Chairman John Arthur and CEO Stephen Rue to address the government’s concerns. Singtel said it takes the matter seriously and will fully cooperate with authorities. Rue has previously admitted that human error and procedural lapses likely contributed to the earlier nationwide outage, while an independent review is expected to be completed by year-end