A nationwide outage this morning has disrupted Internet and cell services for millions of Australians. It’s impacting business and transport too but the information from Optus about the failure is frustratingly minimal.
A short time ago we finally got word from the top.
“We will do everything we can to get services back,” said Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin on ABC Radio.
“The teams are trying many different angles and we will not rest until the service is back up for our customers.”
One would hope not. At this point we can only speculate about what’s happening inside the Optus war room. But people want answers. Not just the public and business, government too.
“I would urge Optus to utilise other mechanisms including broadcasting, radio and television to get these messages out,” said Michelle Rowland, Communications Minister on ABC Radio National.
“I think what’s important here is that consumers be kept updated about the progress, what is happening, when there can be some expectation of restoration. I think it’s been a very anxious morning for many Australians so far.”
At this point Optus has no clue as to what has caused the outage. Or they do but they are not telling us.
On its Facebook page Optus said, “We are aware of an outage impacting our customers. Our teams are working to restore services as soon as possible. We will provide updates as soon as possible. We apologise sincerely to our customers.”
“There is an issue impacting Optus Mobile and Fixed Internet services. We’re working to restore services as quickly as possible,” says Optus on its website.
The response was a lot of angry emojis.
Providers using the Optus network like dodo and amaysim and have also been affected.
“There is currently an Optus outage impacting mobile services nationwide. You may experience issues with making or receiving calls, send or receive SMS and use mobile data,” dodo said in its website.
One of the biggest problems is text-based 2-factor authentication. Without access to your number, many transactions can’t be made.
“That would indicate potentially a deep network problem and one that is significant,” added Minister Rowland on ABC Radio National.
“But I do know, having reached out to Optus and sought some advice, is that limited information at this stage, but Optus is trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Callers to 000 will only get through if there’s coverage from Telstra or Vodafone nearby but Optus landlines won’t work for this service.
In the meantime, users should use a WI-FI network not connected to the Optus system. However, this will not help when it comes to calls and text messages to your Optus number.
It could be the last straw for many users.
