Optus initially characterised its Triple Zero outage in emails to government officials on Thursday afternoon as impacting just 10 calls, with the regulator labelling communication from the telco as “pretty perfunctory”.
The lack of detail allegedly provided by Optus about its Triple Zero failure was laid bare by communications minister Anika Wells on Monday morning.
“We, and my department and I believe the ACMA [Australian Communications and Media Authority] were first emailed a notification that there had been an outage affecting 10 calls on Thursday afternoon, about 3pm from memory,” Wells said.
“We didn’t hear anything further until 3.40pm Friday afternoon when we were told the outage had affected about 100 calls, and then shortly after 4pm we were told the outage had affected 600 calls.
“Then, we found out from our department that there had been three deaths, and then we were told there would be a press conference from the CEO of Optus shortly.”
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin sharply rebuked Optus over the lack of detail and the long delay in receiving accurate information.
“The emails we received on Thursday were pretty perfunctory, and actually some of them were inaccurate, so it wasn’t until the Friday, very late in the day before the press conference, where we were informed by the CEO that there were 624 calls in play and of the deaths,” O’Loughlin said.
Perfunctory, as defined by Oxford Languages, refers to” (an action) carried out without real interest, feeling, or effort.”
One of the main external investigations Optus will face is from the ACMA, and O’Loughlin voiced her displeasure at having to deal with a Triple Zero problem at Optus so soon after an earlier incident in 2023, together with the way this latest issue was handled.
“As part of our investigation, we need to look at just what information they [Optus] need to provide to all of us when they can get it to us, because it was just too late,” O’Loughlin said.
At this stage, it appears Optus may have breached rules for communicating outages that were set up in the wake of the November 2023 outage Optus experienced.
O’Loughlin suggested she was accustomed to more rapid and more accurate information under this regime than what Optus provided.
“There is a formal notification process already in place,” she said.
“That typical process is that as soon as someone is aware of what’s called a major outage or a locally significant outage, they are required to inform a number of stakeholders – ourselves, the department, the national emergency management agency, and the telecommunications industry ombudsman.
“In this case, we weren’t notified of the outage at all until the outage was resolved.”
While noting the detail in notifications could be “variable”, O’Loughlin said that “with the locally significant outages, we receive multiple emails per day, usually as soon as the telco is aware that something has gone wrong.”
“In this case [with Optus Triple Zero], we did not know that something had gone wrong until the matter had been resolved, more than 10 hours later.”
Talking tough
Wells said that Optus “has failed the Australian people on what has happened here”.
“They have perpetuated a failure upon the Australian people, and they can expect to suffer significant consequences as a result,” she said.
However, Wells noted that Telstra and TPG Telecom had also had Triple Zero problems before, and that it is likely the whole industry would have to change.
“We’re going to be considered with our response [to Optus], but there will be consequences for Telstra and the broader telecommunications sector,” Wells said.
“Optus will be held accountable for this failure. They – and all providers – have no excuses here. They must now work with the government and ACMA to make their systems better.
“We are now considering what needs to be done holistically or as part of legislative relief for Australian people, given their confidence has no doubt been shaken by what has happened here.”
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