Labor launches review into Optus outage after 10 million crippled by incident

The millions of Australians and thousands of businesses left without phone and internet service during the crippling Optus outage are being asked to make submissions to a government-led review aimed at better safeguarding the country in case of future incidents.

About 10 million people, and 400,000 businesses, were impacted during the November 8 outage.

A separate Greens-led senate inquiry earlier this month heard from former chief executive Kelly Bayer-Rosmarin – before she quit – that more than 200 triple-0 calls could not be made while Optus customers were left without service.

The review, will report on and make recommendations regarding the functioning of triple-0 during the outage and will look at whether reforms are needed.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the review was an opportunity for industry, government and the community to consider what lessons could be learnt from the outage, noting that no network is immune.

Optus confirmed “changes to routing information” after a “routine software upgrade” was behind the national outage.

The review will also probe what role the government should have in managing and responding to national outages, the adequacy of requirements for customer communication in national service outages, and how complaints and compensation are dealt with in the event of a future mass blackout.

“The recent Optus outage caused significant disruption to the lives of millions of Australians, impacted small businesses and left many without the ability to contact emergency services,” Ms Rowland said.

“We need to learn the lessons from this serious incident because no network is immune from technical faults or outages.

“The Albanese government’s post-incident review will help industry identify where its processes need to be strengthened and provide advice to government on potential reforms.

“Australians expect and deserve better from their communications service providers when these kinds of incidents arise and I would encourage all to have their say – from impacted businesses and industry through to consumers.”

Ms Rowland has tasked former ACMA deputy chair Richard Bean with also looking at how other networks can be relied on to “support a network that is subject to a major outage”.

During her appearance at the senate inquiry, Ms Bayer-Rosmarin confirmed she was required to fall back on her Vodafone SIM on the day of the outage and said she now carried a spare Telstra SIM as well.

In addition to the new review and the senate inquiry, the Australian Communications and Media Authority has also launched an investigation.

Earlier this month, the senate inquiry – due to report back by December 9 – heard from Ms Bayer-Rosmarin just days before she resigned from the telco.

During her appearance, she came under intense scrutiny about the telco’s lack of communication with customers during and after the outage.

She said getting the message out via the media, rather than through direct contact with customers, was intentional.

She also said Optus did not want to comment publicly on the cause of the outage until they had investigated it thoroughly.

“I appreciate how frustrating it was for all our customers not to know what the issue was or when it would be resolved, but it’s not because we were withholding information … it’s because we ourselves did not know what the issue was,” she said at the time.

In a statement from Optus’ parent company Singtel last week that confirmed Ms Bayer-Rosmarin’s resignation, chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon said Optus needed to “regain customer trust and confidence”.

“We fully recognise the importance of Optus’s role in providing connectivity services to the community and the importance of network resiliency and security. That is a top priority in all markets where our companies operate in,” he said in a statement last week.

Ms Rowland last week wished Ms Bayer Rosmarin well.