Three people have died following an Optus technical failure. Photo / Gaye Gerard, NewsWire
One of the three people who died following a botched Optus network upgrade was an 8-week-old baby.
The upgrade resulted in a technical failure impacting triple-0 calls in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
On Friday night SA Police said they had identified the two deaths cited by Optus during their outage on Thursday, September 18.
The deaths involved an 8-week-old boy from Gawler West and a 68-year-old woman from Queenstown, they said.
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue told reporters on Friday evening that two people died in SA and one in WA.
“Yesterday, Optus conducted a network upgrade and within this process a technical failure impacted triple-0 calls,” Rue said.
“This resulted in the failure of a number of triple-0 calls … our investigation is ongoing but at this stage I can confirm that approximately 600 customers were potentially impacted, of which a proportion of their calls did not go through.
“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-0 calls involved households where a person tragically passed away.”
Rue said the welfare checks were ongoing.
“I want to offer a sincere apology to all customers who could not connect to emergency services when they needed them most,” he said.
He also offered condolences to people who lost loved ones.
“I am so sorry for your loss,” he said.
“What has happened is completely unacceptable. We have let you down.
“You have my assurance that we are conducting a thorough investigation and once concluded, we will share the facts of the incident publicly.
“We will co-operate fully and transparently with all relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies while we investigate this matter further.”
But there were still many unanswered questions, including the duration of the outage and why it was only triple-0 calls rather than all calls that were affected.
“That will be part of the investigation,” he said.
Asked why the announcement was coming late on a Friday, Rue said they had been conducting welfare checks during the day.
Last year, the telecommunications company was fined A$12m after thousands of people were unable to access emergency services during a national outage.
Following an investigation launched by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, it found the November 8, 2023 triple-0 outage was not only “preventable” but had the potential for “devastating” consequences.
A total of 2145 customers could not access triple-0, while Optus then failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on people who had attempted to access emergency services during the 12-hour outage.
At the time, Optus said it would never happen again.
“I share your frustration,” Rue said when asked on Friday how something similar had happened again.
“This should not have happened. We’re doing a thorough investigation.
“The facts are still being established … once they are established, we will make them public.”
Lawyer Justin Quill from Thomson Greer said Optus could face civil action from the families of those who died.
“It’s, if you like, a second offence only two years later and as part of an upgrade,” Quill told ACA on Nine.
“So there was obviously some work being done that caused this outage. So all of those factors, together with the most obvious factor, the tragic death of three people, I think will see the fine much higher than $12m.
“In my view, we might also see civil action by the families of those three tragic victims.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells said it was an “incredibly serious and completely unacceptable” incident.
“The impact of this failure has had tragic consequences and my personal thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one,” she said.
“Optus and all telecommunication providers have obligations to ensure they carry emergency services calls.
“This outage will be thoroughly investigated.
“The Australian government accepted all recommendations from the previous Optus Outage Review and has fully implemented 12 of the 18 recommendations, with the remaining six underway.”
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh wants a full investigation into the incident.
“Whilst Optus is still undertaking an investigation as to how this occurred, I am very concerned the emergency camp-on arrangements that should have been in place also failed,” she said.
“There must be a full and thorough investigation into this incident, to establish how and why and most importantly – ensure this never happens again.”
Adjunct Associate Professor Graeme Hughes, a business retail and consumer expert from Griffith University, said the outage raised significant questions about the regulatory system.
“The latest incident highlights that the lessons and penalties from the nationwide 2023 outage were clearly insufficient to prevent another disaster,” he said.
“This raises questions about the effectiveness of current regulatory oversight and the readiness of telecommunications providers to protect public safety.
“The public has a right to know why fail-safe systems – which should have routed emergency calls to other networks – either did not exist or failed to function.
“This latest tragedy shows that relying on promises and limited fines is not enough.
“The government must take a firmer stance to enforce mandatory network resilience and introduce stronger, more punitive measures for critical failures.”
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas has slammed Optus’ handling of the situation, saying the telco did not tell his government about the deaths before the media conference.
“I have not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian corporation in respect to communications worse than this,” Malinauskas said.
“I cannot believe that anyone in the senior levels of Optus thought they should craft a media statement and conduct a press conference before advising the South Australian government that they had ascertained two deaths had occurred.
“I think quite frankly that is reprehensible conduct on behalf of Optus.”
Malinauskas said local authorities were now trying to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
“As soon as information comes to light that we’re in a position to share, we will,” he said.
“My message to Optus this evening is that there will be a thorough examination conducted independently by the South Australian government on every single matter pertaining to their conduct regarding this incident.
“We will thoroughly pursue every avenue we can to ensure that the interests of South Australians, and the families that have been affected by this, are preserved and protected.”
WA’s Premier Roger Cook was also angered by the incident and offered his “deepest sympathies” to the affected families.
“A short time ago the state government received initial information,” he said.
“What has occurred is completely unacceptable and we are urgently seeking further detail from Optus.”
In a statement, WA Police said there was a national protocol in place for triple-0 outages.
“Where an outage has disrupted a triple-0 call, the carrier will attempt to make contact with the caller as soon as possible,” police said.
“Where that follow up contact is not achieved, the carrier must contact police, who then conduct a welfare check on the caller.
“WA Police are currently in the process of conducting a number of welfare checks following a recent triple-0 outage, notifying the relevant emergency service for their response.”
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.