Australia to reform telecoms over emergency call outage
MELBOURNE
Australia Monday foreshadowed changes to the country's telecommunications industry after a major company’s failure to connect hundreds of emergency calls last week was linked to four deaths.
Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom company, blamed a “technical failure” on Sept. 18 for 624 calls failing to connect to emergency services.
Optus was fined more than 12 million Australia dollars ($8 million) for failing to meet emergency call rules during another network outage on Nov. 8, 2023.
Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, was fined AU$3 million ($2 million) in December last year for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its “0-0-0” call center.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said Monday the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the industry watchdog, was investigating what went wrong last week.
“We’re going to be considered about our response, but there will be consequences for Telstra and the broader telecommunications sector. Optus will be held accountable for this failure,” she added.
The calls failed in the Northern Territory and in the states of Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales.
A 74-year-old man and a 49-year-old man died in Perth. A 68-year-old woman and 8-week-old boy died in Adelaide.
Police said the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to the boy’s death since his grandmother immediately used another phone to call an ambulance after her Optus phone failed.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he expected Optus would consider replacing the company’s chief executive.
