Here’s what we know about the Optus outage so far:
Millions of Australian customers and businesses have been hit by a widespread outage on the Optus network. Affected services include mobile and fixed-line networks, along with internet connections. The service is now back on.
The Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, told the ABC said it was a “technical network fault” but would not go into further detail.
At 5.31pm AEDT the telco apologised to customers and said everyone should be back online. “We again thank customers for their patience,” the spokesperson said.
According to Downdetector, reports of an outage began at 4am AEDT. A spike of reports flooded through at 5.45am, when 8,180 reports of an outage were received.
Optus provided a statement online about 6.45am, saying it was “aware of an issue impacting Optus mobile and nbn services” and was working to restore services “as quickly as possible”.
At 10.30am AEDT Rosmarin told ABC Radio Sydney the company had tested a number of “hypotheses” about what might have caused the problem but none fixed the issue.
The federal communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said a protocol was in place to allow Optus customers to “camp” on other mobile networks when needing to call 000. There was a marked increase in camping calls on Wednesday.
However, Victoria’s health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, urged people not to use Optus-linked phones to call triple zero. She said some Optus users had reported they are unable to get through.
At 12.55pm AEDT, Optus wrote on X that some services across fixed and mobile were gradually being restored. “This may take a few hours for all services to recover, and different services may restore at different sites over that time.”
Optus also reiterated its “apology to customers for the nationwide service outage”, and said it was aware of some mobile phones having issues connecting to 000. “If Optus customers need to call emergency services, we suggest finding a family member or neighbour with an alternative device.”
Shortly after 1pm AEDT Rosmarin announced that there was now a “path to restoration” and that some users had had services restored.
The outage caused major service disruptions and delays across the Melbourne train network. It was also affecting phone lines at hospitals across the country.
Rowland and the Coalition’s communications spokesperson, David Coleman, have urged Optus to keep its customers updated.
The Communication Workers Union has labelled today’s Optus outage as an “absolute disgrace” that has left vulnerable people “relying on landlines without emergency help”.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman has released a statement advising Optus customers: “We can help you with refunds for the time you have been unable to use your service, compensation claims and disputes about your contract.”
Rowland earlier said information about the cause of the outage was limited but suggested a “deep network problem”. She said there was no information suggesting a cyber-attack as of Wednesday morning.
Rowland advised small businesses to keep receipts as an “evidentiary base” for recourse and redress.
The Greens said they would move for an urgent inquiry into the outage in the Senate.
The South Australian premier said his government was already talking to Telstra about switching some of its “critical services” away from Optus. Peter Malinauskas also said the state government was “disappointed with Optus”.