Optus claimed it would face a “huge burden” in having to provide real-time updates on emergency call outages to emergency services and the government, just five months before four people died during an Optus triple zero outage.
A 12.30am network firewall upgrade on Thursday last week blocked emergency service calls for Optus customers in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales, with more than 600 calls not able to connect in the 13 hours it was offline.
Despite receiving warnings from customers, emergency services and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) during the outage, Optus itself was not aware of the outage until 1.30pm on Thursday.
The deaths of two people in South Australia and one in Western Australia have been linked to the outage (a fourth death – an infant in SA – was found to have been likely unrelated to the incident).
The communications minister, Anika Wells, said on Monday that neither her office or the Australian Communications and Media Authority were told about the outage until 3pm on Thursday – an hour and a half after Optus became aware – and did not get a complete picture of the extent of the outage until 3.40pm on Friday. The public was informed at 5.30pm on Friday.
The communications breakdown occurred after Optus had resisted new government requirements for more immediate sharing of information during such emergency outages.
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As part of the federal government response to the 2023 Optus outage, Acma made new rules in amendments to the telecommunications industry standard for outages related to how telcos must communicate with the public amid significant outages.
The directions require telcos to provide real-time information about outages to emergency services, triple zero and other appropriate entities when the outage affects emergency calls.
In Optus’s submission, published in April this year, the company said there was no technical capability between the carriers, emergency services, Acma and the federal government for sharing real-time information.
“It is likely that developing such a capability would require significant engagement with all of those organisations and investment from those organisations to ensure they have the necessary capability,” Optus said.
“Regardless, sharing real-time information would be a huge burden.
“Information constantly changes through an outage and would require constant inputs and uploading of information to be shared even if there is technical capability to do so.”
Optus said such a requirement would be “a significant resource impost on staff (who are trying to rectify an outage when one occurs)”. The telco asked whether there would be government investment, suggested that real-time information should be defined as “timely” or “up-to-date” information, and whether this was a function that should be performed by the triple zero custodian.
Acma ultimately adopted the real-time notification requirements in the determination that was finalised in June and is due to come into effect in November, meaning Optus was not required to comply with the changes at the time of the outage.
An Optus spokesperson told Guardian Australia that it did not oppose real-time notifications, but said a “live feed” of information to emergency services and government does not exist and “would require significant resources and co-ordination across the relevant organisations to establish”.
“Optus supports efforts to provide real time information to emergency services and government organisations,” the spokesperson said. “We have engaged, and will continue to engage, with Acma to identify efficient and streamlined ways of achieving this and to ensure that any obligations are clear and unambiguous.”
The company has been offering opt-in notifications about unplanned network outages since 30 June, and has been sending these notifications to emergency service organisations that have agreed to opt in, the spokesperson said.
Nerida O’Loughlin, the Acma chair, said on Monday that the regulator’s investigation into the latest Optus outage would assess whether the company had invested enough in its network, systems and processes for when things go wrong “because we’re seeing this big gap between when the outage actually occurred and when people were notified”.
Guardian Australia reported on Monday that the triple zero custodian, a role designed to oversee the emergency call system, had yet to be staffed more than a year after the Optus 2023 outage, despite being established some time ago.
The government also requires legislation to pass parliament to give the custodian its powers, which will include compelling telcos to produce more information about outages – both during outage periods and outside them. That could include new penalties for withholding such information.
Government sources couldn’t immediately nominate an intended timeline for the legislation to pass or for the custodian to be staffed, but it’s understood the government plans to introduce a bill before year’s end. Only four parliamentary sitting weeks remain in 2025.