Optus outage: CEO says customers will be compensated for disaster
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has declared the company is looking into ways they can compensate more than 10 million Australians affected by today’s mass outage.
NSW
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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has declared the company is looking into ways they can compensate more than 10 million Australians affected by today’s mass outage.
Speaking with Tony Moclair on Melbourne’s 3AW, Ms Bayer Rosmarin said she was “very, very sorry” for the network failure.
“We understand how important it is for all our customers to be connected and we have been working tirelessly since the outage started to restore services,” Ms Bayer Rosmarin said.
The CEO dismissed a suggestion customers would choose another telco en masse after the outage.
“I believe at Optus that we are a customer champion and we go to great lengths to give our customers great value for money, excellent service and coverage and unique features they can’t get anywhere else,” she said.
“Nobody works harder to make sure our customers are looked after and trusted.
“We work very hard 24/7 to keep our customers connected. This is a very unusual occurrence and as soon as we understand exactly what happened we’ll be forthcoming with details.”
Ms Bayer Rosmarin said she had trust in Optus’ engineers to fix the problem before they explored alternative options, including asking other telcos for assistance.
“We of course consider every option we can to keep customers connected, but our first priority is restoring services.
“I do want to thank our customers for their patience. We know how hard it’s been and we’re very, very sorry.”
Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Allan Fels slammed Optus for its “very poor” communication over Wednesday’s outage and said customers deserve compensation.
“The recent data breach means Optus took a very big hit in its public reputation, and this will damage it much more further,” Mr Fels said.
“If there is legal liability they should pay, and in any case, customers who are immediately damaged need compensation.”
Push for inquiry into Optus
An urgent inquiry into the Optus outage impacting millions of Australians has been called for by the Greens, amid concerns the telco giant “failed” to be accountable and transparent for the loss of essential mobile and internet services.
Greens communications spokeswoman Senator Sarah Hanson-Young will move a motion calling for the inquiry on Wednesday.
“It’s unacceptable for this prolonged outage to occur without basic accountability from this huge corporation,” she said.
“It’s not good enough that Optus has failed to front a press conference or the public properly, with the CEO instead “phoning it in” for a radio interview.”
Ms Hanson-Young said if supported by the Senate the inquiry would look into how to prevent a similar mass outage in the future.
“The health, welfare and economic interests of many Australians and businesses have been acutely affected by this outage,” she said.
“The public expect and deserve better and the Greens will push to get the answers that are needed.
“Optus has been so focused on its profits. It must focus on its customers and its ability to deliver a basic service.”
Service starts to resume
The Optus CEO says some services are starting to return online after millions of customers across Australia were hit by a massive outage impacting banking, hospitals, travel and businesses.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said crews still can’t confirm the cause of the outage.
“There is no indication that it has anything to do with a hack or cyber attack,” she said on 2GB.
“We’re still investigating the root cause, as you know we work very hard 24/7 to keep our customers connected.
“This is a very unusual occurrence and as soon as we understand exactly what happened we will be forthcoming with details.”
Meanwhile, Optus have posted fresh details on their website regarding the nationwide outage, saying they will “restore services as quickly as possible.”
“We’re aware of an issue impacting Optus Mobile, Fixed Internet and Phone services and we are working to restore services as quickly as possible,” the Optus statement read.
“We understand connectivity is important and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Banks, hospitals and entire transport networks were all impacted by today’s outage involving millions of customers.
The first reports of the outage came in just after 3am on Wednesday, with thousands of the telco’s 10.2 million customers reporting problems across the country including users from Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said Optus needs to “make sure they step up and communicate” with customers over the ongoing internet and telephone network outage affecting nearly 10 million Australians.
Ms Rowland appeared frustrated by Optus’s response saying “as I understand it, this started in the early hours of this morning, we’re now at 11 o’clock.”
“There is a high level of anxiety and frustration at the moment” over the outage, she said.
Unconfirmed reports have suggested that it could be as many as 11 hours before full service is restored.
“It’s absolutely vital that they get back to normality … I would urge Optus to utilize every channel available, including the broadcast media to make sure that these messages get across,” she said.
Ms Rowland, who said she had recently spoken to the Optus CEO, moved to assure Australians that if they had a mobile phone on the Optus network, they could still access 000 services even if their network connection only showed an “SOS” status.
“Where network is not available, the mobile device will ‘camp’ onto another network, I have spoken to the triple zero operator may have confirmed that this camping mechanism is working,” she said.
However, customers with Optus landlines would be unable to contact 000 on those devices, Ms Rowland said.
She also played down the possibility that the outage was caused by a hack or a cyber attack, saying she “didn’t have any information” to suggest it was caused by outside actors, saying it was only a “deep fault.”
While saying that it was too early to assess the economic impact on businesses that had been left unable to trade because of the fault, Ms Rowland also suggested that Optus could pay a price in the marketplace.
“Consumers will be making judgments about the quality of service that they receive in a competitive market,” she said.
“And I think it is important at this time that people have their services restored as soon as possible.”
As of 12.30pm some Optus customers were able to use call and text services but the majority of users were still encountering problems.
NSW HEALTH SERVICES IMPACTED
NSW Health issued a statement at 10.30am saying “they were aware of impacts on some phone and internet services”.
“NSW Health continues to investigate the situation and is taking steps to minimise
disruption to services where required,” a spokesman said.
Sydney based cancer clinic the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse confirmed they had been affected by the “unplanned phone outage.”
“During this time, all our telephone lines will be affected, please note appointment changes cannot be made, please try calling us back,” the Facebook statement read.
“To contact a patient, please use their personal mobile number during the outage period.
“Please limit calls to URGENT matters only. This helps us prioritise essential tasks during this outage.”
NSW Police reported no disruption to the 000 emergency line.
Commonwealth Bank customers reported money transfer issues as they were unable to receive an SMS verification code.
The CBA warned customers: “You may encounter difficulties calling us and receiving SMS from us including Netcode”.
Similar issues have been reported from Westpac and ANZ customers.
The outage also caused headaches for Qantas and Emirates with travellers unable to complete online check-in, and for people trying to get around the city as well as university students undertaking exams.
Travellers relying on Uber and taxis also faced roadblocks with the network going down.
13Cabs advised their phone lines were down across the country.
Service NSW was also believed to have been impacted, however Sydney Trains and NSW Trainlink have posted an update on social media saying services are running as usual.
Western Sydney University posted online that students due to take exams today could apply for a deferred test if they were impacted by the outage.
“Some of you may have online exams today. Please, don’t worry. If you are unable to access your exam due to the outage, you will be able to apply for a deferred exam if you have not been able to commence your exam due to the outage,” they wrote.
Other providers operated by Optus including Dodo, Southern Phone and Amaysim were also caught up in the ensuing chaos in which customers only had SOS calls available to them.
A number of frustrated customers took to social media to vent about the outage, with some describing the outage as a “failure”.
“I’ve never seen a carrier go down nationwide before, but Optus are special apparently,” one user wrote.
“Absolute failure.”
Still waiting for Optus to connect
— RightMeansCorrect (@rightiscorrectZ) November 7, 2023
Don't worry guys, an asthma attack overnight hits Optus.
Trying to reach Optus customer service in Manila, it's 3 something am there.
24 hour chemist for ventolin puffer.
Trying to access internet.
All is not lost. It shall be well.… pic.twitter.com/3ykjyPe9Kr
LifeGrain Cafe Liverpool staff member Bec Cuaresma said she discovered the outage when she opened the cafe early on Wednesday morning.
“I opened at 6am and the eftpos machines were not logging on,” the barista said.
Ms Cuaresma said she was forced to turn away a number of customers.
“It’s crap, it’s going to be a long day of repeating myself.”
Optus last year undertook an independent review of its security systems after a cyber attack that left millions in the dark about their data.
Nearly ten million customers were caught up in the cyber attack. More than 37,000 Medicare numbers were exposed in the data breach. Passport and drivers licence numbers were also breached.
#Optus are currently unable to provide Australians with an update as their phones & internet are currently down. Instead they have resorted to more traditional means of communications. pic.twitter.com/ZzCy8YhpUI
— Glenn Colgan (@GlennColgan) November 7, 2023
The telco was later slammed for its lax communication with customers and the government in the wake of the attack.
Meanwhile, the former boss of the consumer watchdog says that customers hit by the massive outage deserve compensation.
COMPENSATION CALL
Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Allan Fels slammed the telco for its “very poor” communication about Wednesday’s outage, which he said is Optus’ “second major failing ... in a short period of time”.
“The recent data breach means Optus took a very big hit in its public reputation, and this will damage it much more further,” Mr Fels said.
“If there is legal liability they should pay, and in any case, customers who are immediately damaged need compensation,” he said.
PATIENCE PLEA
Deputy chair of the Australian Foodservice Advocacy Body (AFAB), Wes Lambert, called for patience from diners who may have their booked meals interrupted today.
“Hospitality businesses rely heavily on phone and internet services and any outage could certainly affect the speed of service,” he said.
“The industry calls upon diners to be more understanding until the outage is corrected.
“We’re calling on the same diners to continue to dine out and understand it’s not the restaurants or hospitality business’s fault.”
Mr Lambert said there are 117,000 businesses in Australia in the accommodation and food service industry, who all rely on the internet to help their businesses.
“It would be critical that Optus restores services immediately,” he said.
POISONS ADVICE LINE
The NSW Poisons Information Centre hotline this morning sent out an update saying it is impacted by the nationwide Optus outage and is unable to receive calls.
Residents needing poisons advice should call the temporary hotline number on 1300 392 539.
NSW Pharmacy Guild president David Heffernan said customers at chemists across the state were reporting issues with various sectors including online scripts.
“It’ll definitely impact those types of transactions if you’re with Optus and you’re relying on those scripts for medication,” he said.
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