Telstra fixes outage after hundreds of thousands of customers unable to make mobile calls

The telco says it has resolved a national outage after customers were left unable to make or receive mobile phone calls.

The company said it is working urgently to fix the outage, which began Monday night according to outage website Down Detector.. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Australia’s largest telco Telstra says it has resolved a national outage, after hundreds of thousands of its customers were left unable to make or receive calls.

The company said it had worked urgently to fix the outage, which began Monday night according to outage website Down Detector and affected customers across Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra according to outage reports.

“The issue affecting mobile calls is now fixed. Mobile data and calls to Triple Zero if you had coverage were not affected at any stage,” a Telstra spokesman said.

“We‘re sorry for the impact this had to people’s days. Our team worked to get everyone calling again as quickly as possible.

“Some customers may need to retry calling if it doesn’t connect the first time, but then you‘ll be good to go.”

Telstra customers had taken to Twitter and Facebook to complain on Monday morning that their mobile phone services weren’t working.

Telstra has 18.8m mobile services connected nationally.

It’s unclear what caused the issue.

“If you’re having trouble with calls on your mobile this morning, we’re working urgently to fix it,” the company said on Twitter on Monday morning. “We’re sorry to mess with the start of your day.”

If you’re having trouble with calls on your mobile this morning, we’re working urgently to fix it. We’re sorry to mess with the start of your day.

❗ Triple Zero and mobile data aren’t affected

✈️ Switching Airplane mode on/off can fix the issue for some customers

— Telstra (@Telstra) May 8, 2023

“Making calls using Wi-Fi Calling or through apps like FaceTime or Messenger should still work.”

The company said on its website Monday night it was “sorry for the late-night hassle for our customers.”

The Telstra outage started Monday night. Source: Supplied.

It’s the first major outage under new chief executive Vicki Brady, who took on the top job from predecessor Andy Penn last year.