Australia will overhaul telecommunications after Optus emergency call
failure linked to 4 deaths
[September 22, 2025] By
ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia on Monday foreshadowed changes to
the country's telecommunications industry after a major company’s
failure to connect hundreds of emergency calls last week was linked to
four deaths.
Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom company, blamed a “technical
failure” on Thursday last week for 624 calls failing to connect to
emergency services. While Americans call “9-1-1” in an emergency,
Australians call “0-0-0.” Someone died in four of those Australian
emergencies.
Optus was fined more than 12 million Australia dollars ($8 million) for
failing to meet emergency call rules during another network outage on
Nov. 8, 2023.
Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, was fined AU$3 million ($2
million) in December last year for failing to comply with emergency call
rules during a technical disruption at its “0-0-0” call center.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Monday the Australian
Communications and Media Authority, the industry watchdog, was
investigating what went wrong last week.
“Optus and all telecommunications providers have obligations under
Australian law to make sure emergency services calls go through,” Wells
told reporters.
“We’re going to be considered about our response, but there will be
consequences for Telstra and the broader telecommunications sector.
Optus will be held accountable for this failure,” she added.
Stephen Rue, chief executive of Optus, a subsidiary of Singapore
government-owned telecom company Singtel, apologized for the failure.
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A customer waits for service at a Optus store in Sydney, Australia,
Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Baker,File)
 “I want to reiterate how sorry I am
about the very sad loss of the lives for four people, who could not
reach emergency services in their time of need,” Rue said in a
statement on Sunday.
“Early investigations show that it appears that established
processes were not followed,” he added.
The calls failed in the Northern Territory and in the states of
Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales.
A 74-year-old man and a 49-year-old man died in the Western
Australia capital Perth. A 68-year-old woman and 8-week-old boy died
in the South Australia capital Adelaide.
South Australia Police said the outage was “unlikely to have
contributed” to the boy’s death since his grandmother immediately
used another phone to call an ambulance after her Optus phone
failed.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he expected Optus would
consider replacing the company’s chief executive.
“There will be a thorough investigation of this. Quite clearly,
Optus’ behavior is completely unacceptable. We have made that very
clear,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. from New York
City, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
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