Australia’s telecommunications sector is poised for significant changes following a catastrophic failure of Optus, the nation’s second-largest telecom provider, which resulted in the failure to connect 624 emergency calls last week, linked to the deaths of four individuals. This incident has prompted the government to reassess the regulatory framework governing emergency services communications.
On Thursday, September 14, 2023, Optus reported a “technical failure” that prevented numerous calls from reaching emergency services, known in Australia as “0-0-0.” The tragic consequences of this outage included the loss of lives in incidents across multiple states, including Western Australia and South Australia.
Communications Minister Anika Wells announced on September 18, 2023, that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the country’s telecommunications regulator, is investigating the circumstances surrounding this failure. Wells asserted that all telecommunications providers must comply with Australian law to ensure that emergency calls are successfully connected.
“Optus and all telecommunications providers have obligations under Australian law to make sure emergency services calls go through,” Wells stated. She emphasized that there would be repercussions for Optus, as well as for the broader telecommunications sector, indicating that the company would be held accountable for this failure.
Optus, a subsidiary of Singapore’s state-owned telecom giant Singtel, has faced scrutiny over its operational protocols. Chief Executive Stephen Rue publicly apologized for the incident, expressing his condolences for the loss of life. “I want to reiterate how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives for four people, who could not reach emergency services in their time of need,” Rue said in a statement on September 17, 2023. He noted that initial investigations suggest that “established processes were not followed.”
The fatalities occurred in different locations: a 74-year-old man and a 49-year-old man died in Perth, while a 68-year-old woman and an 8-week-old boy lost their lives in Adelaide. The South Australia Police indicated that the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to the infant’s death since his grandmother was able to use another phone to call for an ambulance shortly after the Optus line failed.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, addressing the media while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, expressed his expectation that Optus would consider a leadership change in response to the incident. “There will be a thorough investigation of this. Quite clearly, Optus’ behavior is completely unacceptable. We have made that very clear,” Albanese stated.
This incident follows a previous regulatory action against Optus, which was fined more than AUD 12 million (approximately USD 8 million) for failing to adhere to emergency call regulations during an earlier outage on November 8, 2023. Similarly, Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, faced a fine of AUD 3 million (about USD 2 million) in December 2022 for similar compliance failures during a technical disruption at its emergency call center.
As investigations continue, the government’s commitment to ensuring the reliability of emergency communications is paramount, with upcoming changes likely aimed at preventing such failures in the future. The focus is now on holding providers accountable to safeguard public safety in Australia.
