The South Australian premier has said he’s never witnessed “such incompetence” from an Australian communications company after an eight-week-old baby was among three people who died during a botched Optus network upgrade.
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue admitted on Friday that the upgrade, which prevented people from making triple-zero calls the day before, impacted up to 600 households in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Two of the deceased were in South Australia and one was in Western Australia, Stephen Rue said, but added that welfare checks after the upgrade were “ongoing”.
South Australia police said an eight-week-old boy from the town of Gawler and a 68-year-old woman from the Queenstown suburb of Adelaide died.
“The upgrade impact … resulted in the failure of a number of triple zero calls in South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia,” Rue said in a press conference on Friday afternoon.
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“I have been advised that during the process of conducting welfare checks, three of the triple zero calls involved households where a person tragically passed away.”
The premier Peter Malinauskas said on Saturday outage started after midnight on Thursday, and stretched for at least 10 hours into Friday.
In a press conference on Friday evening, the premier said: “I have not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian Corporation in respect to communications.”
“Worse than this, It is somewhat extraordinary to me and senior members of the South Australian government that Optus have seen it fit to make this announcement during the course of a press conference, and then only after the commencement of that press conference, to advise senior members of the South Australian government of this occurrence,” he said.
“I think, quite frankly, that is reprehensible conduct on behalf of Optus.”
Optus was approached for comment on Malinauskas’ accusations it did not inform the government until the press conference was underway. It has denied to other media that this was the case.
“My message to Optus this evening is that there will be a thorough examination, conducted independently by the South Australian Government on every single matter pertaining to their conduct, regarding this incident,” Malinauskas said.
The CEO said about 600 customers were affected by the network upgrade, and that Optus was conducting a thorough investigation.
He said normal calls were going through at that time but triple zero calls were affected. The exact duration of the outage was also being investigated.
“We will cooperate fully and transparently with all relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies while we investigate this matter further,” he said.
Rue repeatedly apologised, describing the “technical failure” as “not acceptable” and something that “should not have happened”.
“I offer my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the people who passed away.
“I am so sorry for your loss. What has happened is completely unacceptable. We have let you down.”
He said the facts of the outage would be shared when they were established.
Rue said it was particularly frustrating the outage occurred less than two years after a similar failure.
In November 2023, a routine software upgrade to the network resulted in more than 2,000 people being unable to make triple zero calls.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority fined the network $12m last year for the incident, which breached emergency call rules.
Rue said the investigation into Thursday’s outage would look into why the emergency calls were not handed over to another network.
He did not answer questions about whether the latest outage reflected poorly on him, given it occurred under his watch.
“Today is not about me, this is about the people who lost their lives,” he said.
The network could face fines of more than $10m and other legal penalties.
Anika Wells, the minister for communications, said the government had accepted all the recommendations of the review into the previous Optus outage.
“This is incredibly serious and completely unacceptable. The impact of this failure has had tragic consequences and my personal thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one,” she said in a statement.
“While details are still emerging, no triple zero outage is acceptable. Optus and all telecommunication providers have obligations to ensure they carry emergency services calls.”
In a statement, WA police said there was a “national protocol in place for triple zero outages”.
“Where an outage has disrupted a triple zero call, the carrier will attempt to make contact with the caller as soon as possible,” the statement said.
“Where that follow-up contact is not achieved, the carrier must contact police, who then conduct a welfare check on the caller.”
The statement continued that WA police were, as of Friday evening, in the process of conducting a number of welfare checks and would be notifying the relevant emergency service for their response.
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