Telstra says it is unaware of any failed triple-zero calls during an outage in Western Australia’s South West region earlier today.
Telstra has confirmed that a power outage at a mobile site located at Abbey Beach Resort has disrupted services in Broadwater, a coastal area approximately 230 kilometers south of Perth. The issue was initially reported at midnight (2am AEST).
Power was restored shortly after, but the site took some time to fully recover, leaving customers with call issues.
WA Police alerted the public about 8.45am (10.45am AEST) that the issue was also affecting emergency calls from Telstra services.
Affected customers were advised to make arrangements with neighbours or loved ones to have access to a working phone in the event of an emergency.
“If you know someone who may be vulnerable, a family member, a friend, a neighbor, or a co-worker, you might want to offer them support until the outage is resolved,” stated WA Police.
Telstra said customers in the area should have been able to reach triple-zero through other providers.
A Telstra spokesperson noted that “Telstra mobile customers in the affected region should still be able to contact Triple Zero using the network coverage from other providers, as well as through landline connections.”
The issue was resolved at 11.30am, almost 12 hours later.
Telstra said it was unaware of any failed attempts to reach triple-zero during the outage.
“We’re sorry for any concern this created,” a spokesperson said.
Telstra is the nominated telco for emergency services, whose operators answer triple-zero calls and transfer them to the required organisation.
This situation follows the admission by Communications Minister Anika Wells that confidence in Australia’s triple-zero network has “undoubtedly been shaken” after an Optus outage affected over 600 emergency calls and was linked to three deaths, including one in Western Australia, on September 18.
Today, Optus announced about 4500 people were affected by yet another outage that affected calls, including nine to triple zero, yesterday.
