Optus fined $12m after 2145 customers unable to reach triple-0 amid 2023 outage

Optus has been hit with a $12m penalty for failing to connect more than 2000 people to ­emergency services during a national outage.

The outage, on November 8 last year, left more than 10 million Optus customers unable to make calls, send text messages, access the ­internet or reach emergency ­services. Picture: Getty Images

Optus has been hit with a $12m penalty for failing to connect more than 2000 people to ­emergency services during a national outage.

The nation’s second-largest telco has paid the fine to the communications watchdog, which found Optus had also failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on customers who had tried to reach emergency services during the outage last year.

The outage, on November 8, left more than 10 million of its customers unable to make calls, send text messages, access the ­internet or reach emergency ­services.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority found Optus had failed in its most basic of services by leaving its customers unable to piggyback off other telco networks to reach triple-0.

“Triple-0 availability is the most fundamental service telcos must provide to the public. When an emergency call fails to connect there can be devastating consequences for public health and safety,” ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said.

“Our findings indicate that Optus failed in the management of its network in a number of areas and that the outage should have been preventable.”

An Optus spokeswoman said the company acknowledged ACMA’s findings and would improve “our support for customers at critical times”.

“We know we let our customers down – particularly those who should have received a welfare check from Optus,” she said.

“Optus will continue to co-operate and work with the ACMA, government and regulatory authorities on new industry standards and the other recommendations.”

The fine came a week after the consumer watchdog announced it was suing Optus in the Federal Court after finding it manipulated credit checks to sell phone plans to hundreds of vulnerable people who could not afford them.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission alleged that Optus staff put undue pressure on ­Indigenous people and those with disabilities living in remote areas to buy phones and plans they could not afford, including in remote areas where they had no coverage.

Its chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, described the practice as completely “unacceptable”, saying most of the goods sold to the vulnerable consumers were products “they did not want, did not need and could not afford”.

“In some cases, we allege Optus took steps to protect its own financial interests by clawing back commissions to sales staff but failed to remediate affected consumers,” she said.

Optus held its first town hall meeting with new chief executive Stephen Rue on Wednesday, who left NBN Co in May to join.

In his first note to staff, he said he had “always admired” Optus’s “challenger spirit”, while acknowledging the past two years had been “challenging” for the Singapore-controlled telco.

“It’s important to me that we can all be proud to work for Optus and I will always be focused on ensuring we are a company that is known for doing the right thing – especially for our customers.”