Several deaths occurred during the network disruption, where individuals were unable to reach critical emergency services.
Following the acknowledgment by Optus CEO Stephen Rue that the telecom company overlooked several alerts about disruptions in Triple Zero calls, Wells confirmed this morning that Optus had prior knowledge of the problem but failed to address it.
“Optus will be held to account,” she said.
“Optus and all telecommunications providers have obligations under Australian law to make sure emergency services calls go through.”
Though Wells and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) head Nerida O’Loughlin did not detail the specific penalties Optus might incur, O’Loughlin mentioned a previous $12 million penalty the company faced in 2023 for similar regulation breaches.
O’Loughlin reported that 624 calls to Triple Zero were impacted by the outage, which took place between 12:30 am and 1:30 pm on Thursday across South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory.
She said initial emails from Optus about the scale of the outage had been “perfunctory” and “inaccurate”.
Current regulations mandate that telecommunication firms promptly inform stakeholders, including governmental bodies and ACMA, when an outage is detected.
”In this case we weren’t notified at all until the outage was resolved,” O’Loughlin said.
ACMA is undertaking a thorough investigation of the incident, though Wells and O’Loughlin did not say when they expected that to be resolved.
“Once we have all the information regarding this incident and consider ACMA’s recommendations, I will decide on the appropriate actions for the telecommunications sector as a whole,” Wells stated.
The minister also indicated that the outage could prompt a broader examination of the industry, noting that Optus was not the only provider to have overseen Triple Zero outages.
“This is not entirely a matter for Optus,” Wells said.
“We are considering what needs to be done holistically or as part of legislative relief for the Australian people, given their confidence has no doubt been shaken by what has happened here.”
