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Telstra’s mobile network has been hit by a widespread outage, leaving thousands of customers across every mainland capital unable to make calls or use mobile data, with some reporting their phones had dropped into SOS-only mode.
The disruption appeared far larger than Telstra’s description of “some” services. Outage-tracking site Downdetector recorded a sharp spike in reports from about 5am AEST, with more than 7000 lodged by early morning and complaints coming from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide, as well as regional centres in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
The outage also brought down Victoria’s entire regional passenger rail network. V/Line said all its services had stopped after a radio network fault, leaving dozens of trains stationary at regional stations and on Melbourne’s suburban fringe.
Regional and some intercity trains in NSW are also facing significant delays.
“Due to Telstra outage, significant delays are expected to all services,” Transport for NSW warned. “Please allow extra travel time or please defer travel.”
The federal government said it had been advised of the outage by Telstra. Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said the government was aware of the impact on V/Line and that arrangements were being made for affected passengers.
“The Australian government has been advised by Telstra that there is an outage affecting a large number of mobile calls and connections,” McBain said in a statement. She said Telstra was working to resolve the issue.
No information has been provided on the number of affected customers or locations. The cause of the outage also hasn’t been identified.
There were also issues being reported with other providers who rely on Telstra’s wholesale mobile network, including mobile virtual network operators such as Boost Mobile, Belong, Aldi Mobile and Tangerine Telecom.
Telstra provided about 24.9 million retail mobile services as of June last year, according to the company’s most recent figures. It was fined more than $3 million in 2024 over an earlier outage that stopped some customers reaching Tripe Zero.
