Optus's Chain of Errors: From Network Upgrade to Fatal Communication Blunder and Public Outrage
A major telecommunications company in Australia, Optus, has come under intense fire after revelations emerged that it sent critical notifications about a deadly emergency call outage to the wrong government email address, leaving authorities unaware of the crisis for more than a day. The operational blunder, which occurred during an outage on September 18 that has been linked to three or possibly four deaths due to a failure to connect to the triple zero (000) emergency line, has significantly intensified the scrutiny and public outrage directed at the telco.
During a recent Senate estimates hearing in Canberra, officials from the federal Department of Communications confirmed that Optus sent two emails regarding the emergency call failure to a "redundant" email address. The first email, sent at 2:45 pm on the day of the failure, and a second one minutes later, which incorrectly advised the matter had been resolved and only a minor number of calls were impacted, were both sent to an unmonitored inbox. As a result, the department did not learn about the catastrophic outage which prevented over 600 emergency calls from connecting in several states and territories until the following afternoon, more than 36 hours after it began, when they were finally contacted by the industry regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Department Deputy Secretary James Chisholm stated at the hearing that the telco had been warned "a number of times" that the redundant address was no longer to be used for mandatory outage notifications. While the department acknowledged the required notification email address had only been changed seven days prior, they insisted companies had been informed weeks earlier of the impending switch. Compounding the error, the emails also underplayed the severity of the crisis. The initial report claimed only a small number of calls may have been impacted, which was a gross underestimation of the true extent and duration of the service failure.
The revelation of this communication failure has led to a furious reaction from lawmakers and the public, adding another layer to the existing scandal surrounding the telco. The Prime Minister of Australia raised the issue with his Singaporean counterpart, as Optus is owned by Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel). The Singaporean Prime Minister offered condolences and stated his expectation for Singtel and Optus to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation. The immediate impact is a push for a dedicated watchdog for the triple zero service and growing calls for greater accountability, with some parliamentarians even suggesting the company should face higher fines or have its operating licence reviewed. An independent review commissioned by Optus is currently underway, with its findings expected by the end of the year.