Australia will overhaul telecommunications after Optus emergency call failure linked to 4 deaths

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia on Monday foreshadowed changes to the country's telecommunications industry after a major company’s failure to connect hundreds of emergency calls last week was linked to four deaths.

Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom company, blamed a “technical failure” on Thursday last week for 624 calls failing to connect to emergency services. While Americans call “9-1-1” in an emergency, Australians call “0-0-0.” Someone died in four of those Australian emergencies.

Optus was fined more than 12 million Australia dollars ($8 million) for failing to meet emergency call rules during another network outage on Nov. 8, 2023.

Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, was fined AU$3 million ($2 million) in December last year for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its “0-0-0” call center.

Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Monday the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the industry watchdog, was investigating what went wrong last week.

“Optus and all telecommunications providers have obligations under Australian law to make sure emergency services calls go through,” Wells told reporters.

“We’re going to be considered about our response, but there will be consequences for Telstra and the broader telecommunications sector. Optus will be held accountable for this failure,” she added.

Stephen Rue, chief executive of Optus, a subsidiary of Singapore government-owned telecom company Singtel, apologized for the failure.

“I want to reiterate how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives for four people, who could not reach emergency services in their time of need,” Rue said in a statement on Sunday.

“Early investigations show that it appears that established processes were not followed,” he added.

The calls failed in the Northern Territory and in the states of Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales.

A 74-year-old man and a 49-year-old man died in the Western Australia capital Perth. A 68-year-old woman and 8-week-old boy died in the South Australia capital Adelaide.

South Australia Police said the outage was “unlikely to have contributed” to the boy’s death since his grandmother immediately used another phone to call an ambulance after her Optus phone failed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he expected Optus would consider replacing the company’s chief executive.

“There will be a thorough investigation of this. Quite clearly, Optus’ behavior is completely unacceptable. We have made that very clear,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp. from New York City, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.