Another Optus triple zero outage - damaging consequences for communities

Peak national communications consumer body ACCAN has expressed its deep sympathy following confirmation that three Australians have died after being unable to reach Triple Zero during an Optus outage.

“The passing of three people is an absolute tragedy,” said ACCAN CEO, Carol Bennett. “This serves as a devastating reminder that access to emergency services is absolutely critical. These failures can have tragic consequences.”

According to Optus CEO Stephen Rue, the outage disrupted more than 600 Triple Zero calls across South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.

“This is the second major Optus outage in under two years that has compromised Triple Zero,” Ms Bennett said. “In 2023, more than 2,000 emergency calls failed. We had hoped this would not happen again – and yet it has.”

Following the last outage, the Bean Review recommended significant reforms to strengthen Triple Zero, including the creation of a Triple Zero custodian and real-time information sharing with emergency services. How closely the post-Bean reforms have been followed is unclear at this time.

“It is vital that Australians can have confidence that when they dial Triple Zero, their call will always go through. This failure from Optus must not happen again, but frankly, we are beyond tired of saying such things when it comes to this telco.”

ACCAN will respond in more detail as facts emerge.