The federal government has instructed Optus to enlist external advisors to evaluate its strategies for preventing another failure of the triple-zero emergency system, following serious incidents this month that resulted in multiple fatalities. Communications Minister Anika Wells held a meeting with Optus CEO Stephen Rue and Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon to address the government’s pressing concerns and secure assurances that such disruptions will not recur.
Minister Wells stated, “I have requested Optus to engage external advisors to provide an independent assessment of their network plans. This is crucial for restoring confidence in the system for both the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the government.” She also revealed that the government has mandated an investigation by ACMA and emphasised the need for full transparency from Optus and Singtel throughout this process.
Wells stressed that Optus must take responsibility for the outages impacting the community and assured that they are accountable for these failures. This month alone, the telco experienced two interruptions to the emergency services line, with a significant 13-hour outage stemming from a problematic firewall upgrade on September 18. This incident disrupted around 600 emergency calls in South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, resulting in at least three fatalities.
Following the latest incident, which affected several calls to triple-zero, Minister Wells reiterated the serious concerns held by the government regarding the reliability of the service. She remarked, “The CEO of Optus has much to address, especially since these outages have occurred so close together,” highlighting a growing lack of confidence in Optus’s ability to meet public needs.
Singtel’s CEO, while declining to confirm his support for Rue, noted the importance of allowing time for transformations within the company, which he said had begun with Rue’s appointment nearly a year ago. He acknowledged that it would take time to rectify the challenges faced in recent years.
Rue had previously attributed the initial outage to “human error,” explaining that standard procedures from prior successful upgrades were not adhered to during this latest attempt. The company described the first outage as a result of a routine software upgrade that went awry.
In summary, the Australian government is taking decisive action to enhance accountability and restore public confidence in Optus following a series of critical service failures in emergency response functionality. External assessments and a commitment to transparency are seen as key steps in addressing these serious issues.