Telstra has been fined $3 million for a Triple Zero outage earlier this year that led to 127 calls not being transferred to emergency services.
The incident, on March 1, was previously attributed to a confluence of factors, including a database failure and a software bug.
The telco switched to manual call transfers due to the technical issues, but some of the contact details for emergency services in a backup phone list were incorrect.
For calls that were able to be manually transferred to emergency services, the telco “could not provide the caller’s digital location information … due to the disruption”, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) noted following an investigation.
ACMA member and consumer lead Samantha Yorke said it was concerning that Telstra had “neglected to update its backup phone data”, making some manual transfers of calls impossible.
However, she also acknowledged Telstra’s “historically … strong record of compliance in its role as the national Triple Zero operator”, and its “open and apologetic” approach during and following the incident.
“These actions go a long way to restoring the community’s trust in this critical service,” Yorke said.
A Telstra spokesperson apologised and confirmed the fine was paid.
“People rely on Triple Zero in their greatest times of need. In March, we let people down,” the spokesperson said.
“We apologise wholeheartedly to everyone who was impacted when calling Triple Zero during the disruption.
“We want to reassure the Australian public that we worked quickly to understand what occurred, and made appropriate improvements, so that everyone can be confident that Triple Zero will be there to support them when they need it.”