Optus outage deaths: fury over deadly triple-zero outage

Australian Community Media

Optus has apologised after a failed firewall upgrade blocked hundreds of emergency calls, with at least three deaths confirmed during the outage as police investigations intensify. This video includes ACM-produced voiceover powered by AI.

Transcript

00:00Let me be clear, Optus must be held accountable for this incident.

00:05The information flow here is sort of beggar's belief.

00:10Optus has come under fire after a catastrophic outage blocked hundreds of triple zero calls,

00:16with the telco acknowledging at least three fatalities occurred during the disruption.

00:21I called triple O, there's no sound whatsoever.

00:24So I called him again, still no sound.

00:27That ten minutes or so can be a matter of life and death.

00:30Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled the incident completely unacceptable

00:34and promised a thorough investigation.

00:37Chief Executive Stephen Roo apologised and confirmed a failed firewall upgrade caused the issue,

00:44which left South Australian, Northern Territory and Western Australian customers unable to reach emergency services.

00:50We were informed by two individuals that they could not connect into triple zero

00:55and this information was not surfaced with the relevant escalation at that time.

01:02An eight-week-old baby in Gawla West was initially reported among those deaths,

01:08though police now say it is unlikely the outage contributed,

01:12as an alternative call connected successfully.

01:15Investigations continue into other fatalities,

01:19including a 68-year-old woman from Queenstown.

01:25of the child from Queenstown.

01:27You

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