Optus blames copper wire thieves for latest major outage in Melbourne’s southeast
Optus has said copper thieves are to blame for an outage that left 14,000 customers in Melbourne’s southeast without coverage and unable to connect to emergency services.
Suspected copper thieves have been blamed for an Optus outage that left customers without coverage in Melbourne’s southeast.
More than 14,000 Optus customers were left without coverage on Wednesday morning and unable to phone emergency services amid the “significant” outage, which affected people in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula.
Mobile services were restored by approximately 11.20am.
Optus confirmed in a statement that mobile services had been fully restored “following a suspected vandalism incident earlier today” at a Telstra pit “where a fibre cable was cut”.
It is understood this cut damaged Optus’ subducts, which are small tubes used to protect the cables inside them.
Jacinta Allan on Wednesday morning said it was “deeply concerning to hear reports that there are too many people in our community experiencing an outage that may be impacting their ability to connect to emergency services”.
“I have requested urgent advice on this.
“I can understand why there is a growing concern in the community, particularly given some of the more recent incidents that involve Optus, which is why I’ll be seeking urgent advice.”
She said that today the government was seeking to find out the impact of the outage, its cause, and “most importantly” any people who have been impacted.
A message on the Optus website said: “Calls to emergency services are impacted by this outage”.
“Optus customers will only be able to call emergency services if they are within coverage of another mobile network or are able to call via wi-fi.”
A further update was promised “as soon as possible if there’s a significant change”, or within the next six hours.
The new outage comes just a few months after the telco’s disastrous triple-0 outage, which left hundreds unable to make emergency calls when a network disruption turned catastrophic.
The outage was linked to the deaths of three Australians.
In September – that same month – Optus was hit with a $100m fine for exploiting vulnerable Australians in “predatory” conduct.
The court found between 2019 and 2023, sales were pushed on 400 vulnerable Australians when Optus sold products they did not want or need, or could not use and afford.
The company failed to explain terms and conditions on the contracts for sale in a manner that could be easily understood – which resulted in many failing to understand how their ongoing payment obligations worked.
Optus said they had reported Wednesday’s damage to Victoria Police and were “co-operating with authorities in their investigation”.
“There was overlapping coverage in the affected areas from Optus and other networks.
“We understand the inconvenience this causes and thank customers for their patience.”
Victoria Police has been contacted for comment.
Have you been affected? Email us at news@heraldsun.com.au
