Optus has tried “a number of paths of restoration” to end a nationwide outage that has affected millions of Australian customers and businesses, but none have yet succeeded, its chief executive says.
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who spoke to ABC Radio Sydney via WhatsApp due to the outage, said the company was still looking into its cause, after mobile, landline and internet services across the country went down at 4am AEDT.
“Our team is still pursuing every possible avenue,” she said.
“We had a number of hypotheses and each one so far that we’ve tested … has not resolved the fundamental issue.”
Bayer Rosmarin said she had no more information on the outage and could not say when services were likely to be restored.
She said it is “highly unlikely” the outage was caused by a hack, and that this was a “very, very rare occurrence”.
Hospitals across Australia have been affected, while Melbourne’s entire train network was brought to a halt due to the outage.
The outage has also affected other companies using the Optus network, including Aussie Broadband, Amaysim, CatchConnect, Coles Mobile, Dodo and Moose Mobile.
According to the website DownDetector, users started reporting issues around 4am on Wednesday.
An Optus spokesperson said triple zero calls from landlines would not work, and customers should instead call triple zero from a mobile, which will connect the call through another mobile network.
The federal communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said a protocol was in place to allow Optus customers to “camp” on other mobile networks when needing to call triple zero. There has also been a marked increase in camping calls on Wednesday.
Rowland said it was too early to be talking about compensation those affected, but added that small businesses should be keeping their receipts “so that any recourse and redress that may be available to them has that evidentiary base”.
She also called on Optus to communicate with people about the issue, which she said appeared to be “deep in the network”.
“I would urge Optus to utilise every channel available, including the broadcast media, to ensure these messages get across,” she said.
“Customers are clearly frustrated about it and Optus should respond to that accordingly.”
The opposition’s communications spokesperson, David Coleman, described the outage as “catastrophic”.
“There’s no precedent for an incident of this kind and Optus needs to do everything it can to get this resolved, communicate with its customers, and the government needs to get on the front foot in assisting Optus to resolve this very serious issue,” he said.
Optus is the country’s second largest telecommunications provider and has 10.2 million customers, as well as several government contracts. Rowland said a number of state and federal agencies were being monitored for the impact the outage is having on their services.
Melbourne’s Metro Trains uses Optus for both its primary and backup communication systems, according to union sources. The train operator said a “communicators error” linked to the Optus outage prevented trains from running across the entire metropolitan network about 5am.
Train services resumed shortly after 6am, but major delays of up to 45 minutes and cancellations were expected.
Hospital phone lines were also affected by the outage. Sydney’s Westmead private hospital confirmed on Facebook that its lines were down, while Northern Health and Eastern Health in Melbourne reported the same issue.
“This includes phone lines into Northern hospital Epping, Broadmeadows hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre, Kilmore district hospital and [the] Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED),” Northern Health said in a statement on Facebook.
A New South Wales Health spokesperson confirmed some of its phone and internet services were affected. “NSW Health continues to investigate the situation and is taking steps to minimise disruption to services where required.”
Phone lines at Ramsay Health Care, which operates 73 private hospitals and day surgeries across Australia, were also down as a result of the outage.
Austin Health, in Melbourne’s north-east, was unable to receive phone calls from external numbers but said its internal systems were functioning and patient care was not affected.
Patients and family members have also reported being unable to get through to the Peter MacCallum cancer centre, Royal Women’s hospital, the Royal Melbourne hospital, Royal Children’s hospital and St Vincent’s hospital.
The Royal Melbourne hospital said it had called a code yellow – indicating there is an internal emergency affecting service delivery – at all its campuses.
“Our services remain as normal and will continue to provide regular updates. We apologise for any inconvenience,” a hospital spokesperson said.
Victoria police has confirmed their station’s lines were unaffected by the outage, while NSW police issued a statement saying there were no issues affecting triple zero call takers.
However, Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, urged people not to use Optus mobiles to dial triple zero.
She said the state’s triple zero call-taking services, the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (Esta), was receiving calls but some Optus mobile users were reporting they were unable to get through.
Fire Rescue Victoria also confirmed its call services were affected by the outage, but communications at Queensland Fire and Emergency Services were operating normally.
Both Coles and Woolworths said their stores were unaffected by the outage, though many small businesses have reported they were unable to process eftpos transactions.
The issue also appears to affect two-factor authentication services that rely on Optus to send out codes via text message to confirm a user’s identity.
Commonwealth Bank said some customers may encounter difficulties with services such as online banking as a result
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November 08, 2023 at 02:59AM
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Optus outage: CEO says efforts to fix network have failed as millions across Australia go without mobile or internet - The Guardian
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