Three people died during a Triple Zero network outage that resulted from a network upgrade, Optus chief executive Stephen Rue has said.
The failure affected about 600 customers in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and three people died on Thursday, Rue said at a press conference on Friday. Two of the deaths occurred in South Australia and one was in Western Australia.
Rue joined Optus after previous chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned after presiding over a mass outage and a data breach.Credit:
“Our investigation is ongoing, but at this stage I can confirm that 600 customers were potentially impacted, of which a proportion of their calls did not go through,” Rue said at a press conference late on Friday.
“I can confirm that this technical failure has now been rectified. I have been advised that during the process of conducting welfare checks, three of the Triple Zero calls involved households where a person tragically passed away.
“Please know that these welfare checks are ongoing. I want to offer a sincere apology to all
customers who could not connect to emergency services when they needed them most, and I offer my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the people who passed away.
“I am so sorry for your loss.”
Optus will face widespread scrutiny over the incident, its first under the new chief executive, who joined the company after previous chief Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned following a mass outage and a data breach.
A November 2023 network meltdown affected about 10 million customers and left hundreds unable to get through to Triple Zero emergency services over 16 hours, while a September 2022 data breach was the worst in Australian corporate history.
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