Optus network crash LIVE updates: Everything you need to know as Australia’s second biggest telco goes down

On September 28, Optus told staff at a call centre in Adelaide that up to 150 jobs were being made redundant.

It is understood the final cuts were completed just two weeks ago, cutting the workforce at that call centre by a third.

In a cautiously worded statement, an Optus spokesperson said the company ‘continually evaluates our organisational structure to ensure it is the right one for meeting our customers’ needs’.

The statement added that the telecommunications giant had ‘recently undertaken a review and taken steps to simplify our business while still investing in those areas we know matter to our customers.

‘As part of this review, we are realigning teams which will impact some roles across our business.’

Optus said it would try to redeploy some staff whose roles were impacted, with some understood to have already been offered positions in other states.

‘This is a deep fault, it has occurred deep within the network and has deep ramifications,’ she said.

‘For those customers, they are being impacted by the inability to make calls or use their services.

‘We now understand, this has been confirmed, calls to Triple Zero the emergency service cannot be made from Optus landline services.

‘My understanding is that it is a fault that is quite fundamental to the network… to the core.’

Ms Rowland said it is still too early to begin discussions about compensation or consumer rights.

She said the government is ready and willing to assist Optus and customers as best they can.

Optus has been working tirelessly to restore connections across Australia, but ‘so far have not had the results that we hoped for’.

CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin told ABC Radio: ‘Our team is still pursuing every possible avenue.

‘We had a number of hypotheses and each one so far that we’ve tested and put in place new actions for has not resolved the fundamental issue.’

But she said it is ‘highly unlikely’ this outage is the result of a hack.

‘Our systems are actually very stable, we provide great coverage to our customers, this is a very rare occurrence,’ she said.

‘And when I have more information about the root cause I will be the first to let our customers know.’

This latest drama comes 14 months after Optus was hit by Australia’s largest-ever hacking scandal, where the private information of customers was compromised and in some cases stolen.

About 20 terabytes of data were improperly accessed including current and former customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses.

A subset of the 9.8million affected customers also had their addresses and identity document numbers compromised.

Affected customers have since launched a class action law suit with firm Slater and Gordon.

Ms Rowland will address the public at 11am in response to the Optus outage, which is still ongoing.

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin appears missing in action as the Singapore-owned telco faces another massive crisis since she took the reins during the pandemic.

The telco issued a brief statement – published below – but five hours after the outage began there is still no update from the company’s CEO.

She took over Optus just as the Covid pandemic began but faced the biggest crisis the company had ever suffered when a massive hack a year ago stole and exposed personal details of up to 10 million customers.

The furious backlash saw analysts, customers and commentators demand her sacking at the time but she managed to survive the outrage.

At the time she was credited with coming forward and taking ownership of the problem personally with a series of video messages to customers.

‘We’re aware of an issue impacting Optus mobile and nbn services and are working to restore services as quickly as possible.

‘We understand connectivity is important and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

‘Our teams are working urgently to restore services. We will provide updates as soon as possible. We apologise sincerely to our customers.’

Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowlands said she was yet to receive an update from Optus but it appeared to be a ‘deep and significant’ network problem.

‘I can’t speculate at this time about whether or not this is something to do with some sort of cyber hack,’ she told 2GB Radio on Wednesday.

‘All I do know is that it is impacting on Australians, that customers do want to know what is going on.

‘I would urge Optus to get that information out through any channels that are possible and to do that as a priority.’

Melbourne’s Northern Health district said their hospitals’ phone lines had been impacted.

‘All phone lines into Northern Health campuses are currently being affected by an Optus outage,’ they said.

‘This includes phone lines into Northern Hospital Epping, Broadmeadows Hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre, Kilmore District Hospital, and Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED). We apologise for any inconvenience.’

Sydney’s Westmead Private Hospital is experiencing the same issue.

‘Due to the national outage of Optus all our phone lines are unfortunately down, to contact the hospital, please email us on admissions,’ the hospital said.

One carer in Melbourne said they weren’t able to call an ambulance after their patient suffered a cardiac arrest.

‘I had to run out on the street and borrow a phone from someone walking his dog,’ they told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Another Optus user said his wife, who is a specialist doctor supervising kidney transplants, was also unable to make any calls.

Melbourne’s train network also shut down earlier on Wednesday, leaving many commuters stranded.

The outage was first reported at 4am on Wednesday with Optus mobile users unable to make or receive calls and texts, with the internet network and home broadband also down.

Other carriers that use the Optus mobile network like Amaysim, Vaya, Aussie Broadband, Moose Mobile, Coles Mobile, Spintel, Southern Phone and Dodo Mobile are also down.