Optus mobile outage cuts off users in northern New South Wales during bushfire threat

Australia’s second largest phone network fell down in northern New South Wales, cutting off customers under bushfire threat.

Optus customers in one of Australia’s fire-threatened regions struggled to place and receive phone calls today as an extended outage on its mobile network shut down communications.

The outage in northern New South Wales began shortly after 8am AEDT, according to Down Detector, and affected the company’s 3G network and some fixed line services.

An Optus spokeswoman said the company restored services just after 1.40pm, following hours of complaints from users.

“We continue to monitor the situation to ensure services remain stable,” she said.

Optus said it was working to restore services in bushfire-affected regions. Picture: Supplied

Triple 0 calls on the mobile network were not affected by the outage, though the problem may have affected users’ ability to call loved ones for updates.

Multiple bushfires are currently burning in the northern NSW area, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service, including blazes at Yamba, Mullumbimby, and near Coffs Harbour.

More to come.

Originally published as Optus mobile outage cuts off users in northern New South Wales during bushfire threat