US EditionFour Deaths Confirmed After Optus Outage Blocked Calls to Triple Zero.
A firewall upgrade error caused a 13-hour emergency call outage affecting about 600 customers and resulting in four deaths, prompting government criticism and an Optus investigation.
- An extensive Optus outage on Thursday prevented emergency Triple Zero calls for over 10 hours in South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, contributing to four fatalities.
- The outage resulted from a botched firewall upgrade that Optus did not detect promptly, delaying notification to government officials and emergency services.
- Victims included an eight-week-old boy and a 68-year-old woman in Adelaide, and two men aged 74 and 49 in Perth, whose families experienced failed emergency calls during the outage.
- Optus CEO Stephen Rue apologized, confirmed the technical fault lacked alarms, and promised daily updates and an independent investigation into the failure.
- The outage prompted welfare checks on over 150 callers, criticism of Optus's communication delays, and a $12 million fine for breaching emergency call regulations.
23 Articles
23 Articles
Optus Pledges Full Review Into Triple-Zero Outage After 4 Confirmed Deaths
Optus is pledging to fully investigate a 10-hour triple-zero outage, accepting responsibility for a number of breakdowns during which at least four people died. The telco’s chief executive says an independent investigation will be conducted after admitting the outage was caused by a botched firewall update to the system. Stephen Rue said Optus had been contacted by the telecommunications industry ombudsman about two complaints of people trying t…
Devastated family discover woman desperately tried to call Triple Zero during Optus outage
The family of a 68-year-old Adelaide woman who died during the widespread Optus outage on Thursday only realised their loved one was a victim this morning.The woman was home alone inside her Queenstown property when she had a medical emergency and was unable to get through to Triple Zero on Thursday.Paramedics and police eventually arrived at the home but the woman could not be saved.READ MORE: Fourth death confirmed after Optus outage blocked…
Sydney Morning Herald
Timeline: What happened in the 32 hours after a customer told Optus Triple Zero wasn’t working
It took Optus more than 32 hours to notify the public after it was first warned of a catastrophic failure of its network that dropped at least 600 Triple Zero calls, during which four people died.
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