Telstra sheds new light on Optus’ triple-0 outage

Telstra says its emergency service systems, meant to connect Optus customers to triple-0 during the outage, was working raising questions on why 228 calls didn’t go through.

Optus boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned on Monday following the recent outage. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

The nation’s largest telco, which operates triple-0 Emergency Service Answer Points around the country, has confirmed its services ran without fault during the Optus outage, raising questions as to why 228 calls did not go through.

Telstra, in its submission to an inquiry into the Optus Network Outage, said all calls “successfully delivered” to the triple-0 emergency call answer points amid the outage were answered.

“We do not have visibility of Optus customer experiences related to their ability to place successful triple-0 calls. However, we did answer some emergency calls from Optus customers during the outage, both via the emergency call camp-on mechanism and from their fixed and mobile networks,” the submission read.

“During the Optus Network Outage, Telstra’s network continued to be available to accept emergency call camp-on requests from devices.”

Telstra’s submission arrives after former Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said a couple hundred customers were unable to reach triple-0 and that the telco had to perform welfare checks on those customers once its network was restored.

When asked why Optus customers were unable to connect amid the senate inquiry on Friday, Ms Bayer Rosmarin said: “We don’t manage the triple-0 system. It’s a very complex system that involves all the carriers”.

The former Optus boss alluded to two potential issues – involving the emergency camp-on system itself as well as the mobile devices of its customers.

“It ­involves the device manufacturers. The triple-0 system is supposed to be able to pick up the traffic when we have an outage like this. The triple-0 system itself should have helped our customers during outage and we will take accountability for any role we’ve had in that, but there are also probably changes that need to be made in other parts of that system, ­potentially with different devices,” Ms Bayer Rosmarin said.

“We absolutely believe that the triple-0 system should have worked and it’s critical for all Australians that the system can be relied upon.”

Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman said he had seen some “confusion” as to why emergency camp-on services did not work amid the outage.

“Telstra’s submission states that the core triple-0 service operated as normal during the outage and answered all calls that were delivered to it. But we know that on at least 228 occasions Optus calls were not able to reach triple-0,” he said.

Mr Coleman also pointed to the Australian Communications Media Authority which, he said, is responsible for monitoring emergency camp-on services and ensuring they perform as intended.

“ACMA’s own website states that is responsible for monitoring and regulating the triple-0 service. We need to understand what happened here,” he said.

“The triple-0 service is a critical lifesaving service which is why the Government can’t allow confusion about what has gone wrong to fester. It’s time the government stepped up and started answering questions about the service.”

Optus has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Telstra sheds new light on Optus’ triple-0 outage