Police investigate malicious damage to Optus communications tower in Hunter Valley
Police are investigating malicious damage caused to an Optus tower that left thousands of residents without mobile service and some triple-0 calls potentially affected.
A major Optus outage affecting about 70,000 mobile voice and data services across the Hunter Valley has been linked to malicious damage to a communications tower in Hexham.
Police confirmed the tower, located along Maitland Rd, was deliberately damaged around 9.30am on Wednesday, prompting a full investigation.
The disruption left residents in the region with limited mobile voice and data services for several hours, with some customers potentially unable to connect to triple-0.
An Optus spokesperson said technicians were onsite working to restore services as quickly as possible.
“Mobile voice and mobile data services are impacted,” the spokesperson said.
“The ability to connect to triple-0 may be impacted for some.”
Customers experiencing difficulties were advised that emergency calls may still be made via wi-fi calling where available.
By 5.45pm, Optus confirmed services had been restored for the majority of affected customers.
“We apologise to our customers for the disruption and thank them for their patience,” a spokesperson said.
“We will continue to provide regular updates as work progresses.”
The spokesperson said Optus had alerted emergency services and agencies, Telstra’s emergency call person and relevant government bodies.
It’s understood Optus customers were notified just after 1.30pm.
Telstra also said the damage also knocked out five of its mobile sites and some landline services in parts of NSW.
“Repairs are under way and services are progressively coming back online,” a spokesperson said.
“Vandalism and copper theft is a significant international issue that affects all service companies, including Telstra.
“The impact of vandalism like this can be significant for businesses, individuals and critical community services.
“It also requires us to divert work crews to restore services, delaying us from resolving other customer issues. We encourage anyone seeing any suspicious activity near our facilities to contact police immediately.”
NSW Police said officers responded about 3.15pm, to reports of a communications tower situated along Maitland Rd, Hexham, being maliciously damaged.
“The damage is believed to have been caused about 9.30am today,” a spokesperson said.
“A crime scene has been established.”
Police are urging anyone with information about the incident, or who was in the area at the time and may have dashcam or mobile phone footage, to contact Newcastle Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Welfare checks are reportedly under way in the Hunter region to investigate whether there were any failed attempts to connect with emergency services.
“We’re sorry services are still disrupted by an outage,” Optus said in an email.
“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.”
The outage comes less than two months after previous network failures were linked to three deaths, drawing intense scrutiny on Optus chief executive Stephen Rue and the company’s emergency response procedures.
Optus has faced multiple regulatory challenges in recent years, including a $12m fine for failing to provide emergency call services in 2023, and a 2022 cyber attack affecting the data of around 9.5 million Australians.
Originally published as Police investigate malicious damage to Optus communications tower in Hunter Valley
