Optus outage knocks out service for over 14,000 customers; Calls to emergency services also impacted

An Optus outage on Wednesday disrupted service for more than 14,000 customers, marking another major blow for the telecom provider. The interruption affected calls and internet on mobile, with many users also unable to reach emergency services, reported Sydney Morning Herald. This marks the fourth time in recent months that a major Optus outage has blocked access to emergency services.

"Calls to Emergency Services are impacted by this outage,” the Optus website reads as quoted by 7News.

According to Sydney Morning Herald, the outage is impacting 14,096 customers across Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and the coastal suburb of Frankston, sparking fresh demands for a review of Optus’ licence following a string of major service failures.


Optus said the outage stemmed from vandalism, noting that thieves severed critical fibre cables while attempting to steal copper from telecommunications pits.

“This is an act of vandalism. These are criminals that are cutting the fibre that provides vital connectivity to customers,” Jane McNamara, Optus spokeswoman, told ABC Radio Melbourne as quoted by Sydney Morning Herald.

“Criminals target infrastructure [sites] where telecommunications infrastructure is located... often there’s copper in these pits, and so criminals are looking to steal that copper. They don’t actually know where it’s located, and will cut the infrastructure in that pit.”

McNamara said five of the six affected sites were back online by mid-morning, with full restoration expected within hours. She added that no Triple Zero failures had been reported, as emergency calls were automatically redirected through other carriers’ networks.

A planned firewall upgrade in South Australia on September 18 caused a communications outage that has since been linked to the deaths of three Australians, reported 7News.

However, Optus chief executive Stephen Rue attributed the incident to human error. While most standard calls continued to function, the disruption prevented roughly 600 Triple Zero calls from reaching emergency services.