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By the time Optus had contacted the communications authority and the minister’s office, hundreds of users had been unable to contact emergency services; the South Australian Police, Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, and customers had contacted the telco to let them know something was wrong. Three people died while unable to contact Triple Zero during the outage.
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How could a telecommunications company mess up an email address?
Both emails sent from Optus to ACMA on the afternoon of September 18 were sent to incorrect addresses, despite the carrier telling the authority they had the correct email address six days earlier.
On September 11, a week before the network outage, Optus was informed by ACMA that the email address the telco should contact to raise an alert about network issues had changed. On the same day, the authority updated its website to reflect that change. The following day, Optus updated its internal IT systems to reflect the change, confirming this with the watchdog.
Between September 11 and October 8, Optus sent 272 emails to the correct address – around 10 emails per day. However, on the day of the catastrophic outage, September 18, Optus sent two emails to the old address that was no longer monitored regularly. Based on testimony from the Department of Communications at Senate estimates on Wednesday, these were the only emails within that period to be sent to the incorrect address.
Why did Optus only raise the alarm after the outage was over?
The first contact from Optus to raise alarms about the outage came 14 hours after the crisis had started, and almost an hour after upgrade works were paused and the system began to be restored. Optus CEO Stephen Rue himself said that he was aware of the severity of the crisis at 1.30pm on September 18, but the watchdog was not notified for a further 70 minutes.
Telcos are obliged to notify Telstra, which operates Triple Zero call centres, and ACMA “as soon as possible” after a significant network outage.
Was email forwarding too difficult for the Department of Communications?
The new email for emergency notification was established by the Department of Communications just a week before Optus’ network outage, yet the department had not established any forwarding system so that messages sent to the defunct account would still be seen.
Representatives for the department repeatedly said at Senate estimates this week that the fault clearly lay with Optus for sending alerts to the wrong email. However, in their own testimony, they said they had told telco companies that the defunct email would be monitored occasionally.
While the emails were sent after the crisis was rectified, and their arrival at a correct address would have done little to solve the problem, it is unclear why a basic mail-forwarding system was not in operation.
Why did Optus stay silent about the deaths for almost 24 hours?
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue informed the minister, the industry watchdog and the public that there were deaths during the network outage on the afternoon of September 19. However, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told Senate estimates on Wednesday that when she met with Rue on Tuesday he told her the telco was aware of deaths on the evening of September 18, and he personally became aware of them at 9am on September 19.
Optus chief Stephen Rue attempts to leave Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday, but falls foul of the security gates.Credit: Nine News
While the exact time Optus employees became aware of the deaths on September 18 is unknown, there is a significant delay in informing the public, the minister, the department, or the watchdog.
Is anyone with teeth investigating?
Optus’s board has appointed Kerry Schott, the former CEO of Sydney Water, to lead an independent review into the September 18 outage. The company has also employed American firm Kearney to oversee its Triple Zero operations and its network more broadly on an ongoing basis. A second review from ACMA will investigate the outage, and both will report publicly.
However, both the opposition and the Greens have criticised the measures, saying Optus and the watchdog cannot be trusted to oversee the reviews. Liberal senator Sarah Henderson went so far as to describe ACMA’s review as “like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank”.
The Coalition unsuccessfully moved on Wednesday to establish a House select committee to investigate the outage, which the government voted down. However, Hanson-Young said she is determined to establish a “full-blown parliamentary inquiry” once the Senate next sits at the end of the month.
A vote from the Coalition, Greens and crossbenchers could easily see the inquiry established, and if this week’s senate estimates are any sign of what’s to come, it would not be an easy ride for Optus.
Did Communications Minister Anika Wells fail?
The opposition has run a concerted campaign this week to lay blame over the crisis at Wells’ feet. Some of their accusations, including the claim that Optus’ emails were “secret” don’t hold much water after Wells office repeatedly pointed to her addressing them on September 22.
However, Wells and the former minister Michelle Rowland sat on key recommendations from the Bean review into Optus’ previous major outage in 2023 for 17 months, only completing two-thirds of them by September 18.
It was not until the September 18 outage that Wells said the government was fast-tracking legislation to empower a Triple Zero custodian to oversee the emergency services call ecosystem, despite the recommendation being accepted some 16 months prior. The custodian group already exists within the Department of Communications, but was toothless without the legislation.
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Another issue was the fact that Wells travelled to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City just days after the outage. She defended her actions, saying she was advocating to world leaders about the government’s under-16 social media ban, describing the proposition as having the capacity to “change the world”.
Finally, Wells described herself as “still a new minister” to the portfolio as she worked through the issue. Coming almost five months after her appointment to the role, the opposition has made political hay of the comment.
Why hasn’t the Optus CEO resigned yet?
Calls for Stephen Rue’s resignation have been frequent since the crisis unfolded, and in the words of Hanson-Young, it “beggars belief” that the telco chief has not stepped down. Rue has been in the role for 11 months, joining in November 2024 in a bid to restore Optus’ reputation after multiple crises.
Optus chairman John Arthur backed the leader, saying the board was “satisfied that he is making progress” after the chief was hired to “fix the issues at Optus”. Parent company Singtel’s chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon did not offer as straight of a backing - declining to give a yes or no answer to that question - but said Rue was “here to provide the solution” to Optus’ manifold issues.
Chief executives, ministers and department secretaries have lost their jobs for much less, and while Optus overlords appears to have great faith in their leader, the public would likely have a very different opinion of his track record.
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