Crisis deepens for Australian telco Optus after fresh emergency call outage

29/9/2025 17:31

Australian telco Optus said on Monday it had suffered another emergency call outage in an area south of Sydney, 10 days after a broader disruption that it said had probably caused four deaths when customers were unable to get timely aid.



The Australian government called the outage an "absolutely shocking failure" and has said it will seek answers from Singapore Telecommunications, which owns the country's No. 2 carrier.



Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon plans to meet Australia's Communications Minister Anika Wells this week, a spokesperson for the minister's office said. Optus Chairman John Arthur and CEO Stephen Rue will join Yuen in the meeting with Wells, Singtel said.



"Singtel takes this matter seriously and will extend full co-operation to the Australian government and authorities to address the Optus issue," a spokesperson said.



News of another failure of the "000" number for Optus has triggered a firestorm of criticism in Australia and deepens the reputational crisis for the carrier, which has struggled to rebuild trust after a string of high-profile failures in recent years.