Massive Outage Disrupts Optus Network, Leaving Countless Australians Stranded
Millions of Australians woke up to an unsettling sight on Wednesday morning as their mobile phones displayed SOS in the status bar. The country’s second-largest telecommunications company, Optus, was struck by a nationwide service outage, causing significant inconvenience and distress for its vast customer base.
Optus boasts over 10 million customers and services around 400,000 businesses across the nation. On an average day, the network handles a staggering 51.3 million mobile calls and 51 million SMS messages. Thus, the hours-long outage not only resulted in the loss of important calls, messages, and social media notifications, but it also had a crippling effect on businesses, public transport, and emergency services.
According to the IP Observatory at Monash University, Optus’ service breakdown began between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, with Victoria and Queensland experiencing the most severe impact. Apologizing for the inconvenience caused, Optus acknowledged the issue affecting its mobile, fixed Internet, and phone services.
The repercussions of this massive outage extended beyond Optus customers alone. As a cluster of smaller mobile network providers operates on the Optus network, the ripple effect was felt far and wide. Major banks such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ, and Westpac reported difficulties in receiving phone calls from customers.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chief Executive, Andrew McKellar, highlighted the significant impact on all businesses, especially small enterprises that heavily relied on Optus for day-to-day operations. Without internet connectivity, many businesses weren’t able to receive or process payments, weren’t able to trade, and therefore weren’t able to open, he explained. McKellar further warned that with more than 400,000 business customers, the aftermath’s economic consequences would be immense.
In the state capital of Victoria, Melbourne, the Optus outage caused a complete halt of metro train services early in the morning, leaving commuters to consider alternative modes of travel. Emergency service agencies across Australia also stepped in to assist residents as the outage disrupted Optus subscribers from making calls to the emergency helpline, Triple Zero.
The Optus network was eventually restored by 6:32 p.m. local time, although some National Broadband Network services may require further attention. Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin referred to the outage as a very rare occurrence, emphasizing the relentless efforts of their teams to promptly restore services.
This major service disruption comes just over a year after Optus encountered a large-scale data breach. In September of the previous year, the company disclosed that a cyberattack had exposed the data of approximately 10 million current and former customers, with 2.8 million people experiencing significant impacts.
This recent outage has once again shed light on the vulnerability of telecommunication networks and the profound impact they have on daily life. As Australia reflects on this incident, questions arise about the need for increased investment and measures to ensure the robustness and resilience of such critical infrastructure moving forward.
