As part of their licence to operate in this country, telecommunications providers must guarantee they can deliver calls to emergency services.

Optus’s inability to ensure this vital service is operational is both shocking and deeply tragic, especially as it resulted in four deaths, including that of an 8-week-old baby.

Why wasn’t there a system to alert Optus that the network update had blocked Triple Zero calls? Unaware of the issue, Optus did nothing to address it for over 13 hours.

It then took 32 hours for the public to be told.

Normal calls remained unaffected, yet it took individual reports from two callers to inform Optus, hours after the emergency system was down, that they couldn’t connect.

Those customers were ignored by Optus which failed to escalate their calls.

Australians must trust that all telecoms can effectively enable access to emergency services whenever needed.

If Optus can’t deliver, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the telco’s licence to operate in this country.