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Optus has paid penalties of more than $12 million for breaching emergency call rules during its outage in November 2023.
The penalty was the result of an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) which found Optus failed to provide access to the emergency call service for 2,145 people during its outage on 8 November 2023.
Additionally, Optus failed to conduct 369 welfare checks on people who tried to make emergency calls during the outage.
Overall, the outage impacted its mobile and fixed-line network, with the telco initially claimed to ACMA and statements to the public that 229 calls from mobiles to Triple Zero were unable to connect. However, after a review by Optus, the figure was at least 2,697, according to the federal government in January.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the penalty size was due to the critical nature of the breaches.
“Triple Zero availability is the most fundamental service telcos must provide to the public. When an emergency call fails to connect there can be devastating consequences for public health and safety,” she said.
“Our findings indicate that Optus failed in the management of its network in a number of areas and that the outage should have been preventable.”
In response to the penalty payment, a spokesperson for Optus said it acknowledges ACMA’s announcement and remains “committed to continuously improving our support for customers at critical times”.
“We know we let our customers down – particularly those who should have received a welfare check from Optus,” the spokesperson said.
“Our entire team is committed to addressing all lessons from the outage.”
The telco has made changes to its systems and processes over the last 12 months and its customer support team has been talking to impacted individuals, with additional support available to them, the spokesperson claimed.
“We remain focussed on ongoing investment in the resilience of our network and invest almost $1 billion annually on network initiatives, maintenance and upgrades,” Optus’ spokesperson said.
Additionally, the spokesperson added that the telco welcomes the work undertaken in the Bean review and acknowledges “the importance of having communications processes and protocols that prioritise public safety”.
“Optus will continue to cooperate and work with the ACMA, government and regulatory authorities on new industry standards and the other recommendations of the Bean review,” the spokesperson said.
“The new standards will formalise processes on an ongoing basis, and we strongly support this for the safety of all Australians.”
In addition to the Triple Zero issues, other failings by Optus were found in the review, with the government agreeing to various actions to improve the overall sector in relation to outages.
This includes necessitating better communications by telcos with customers and other stakeholders during an outage, more oversight of the Triple Zero ecosystem, regular systems testing and the capability for other telcos to pick up emergency calls when required.
As a result, ACMA has already updated the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019, is developing new industry standards and is expected to make changes to how complaints are handled.
“Beyond the penalties announced today by the ACMA, the Optus outage has directly led to changes for industry regulatory obligations in relation to emergency call services,” O’Loughlin said.
“This will require further actions and investment by telcos, including Optus, to provide better safeguards for consumers and enhance the Triple Zero ecosystem so that Australians can have even greater confidence they will be able to get through to emergency services when they need it.”