CANBERRA, Nov 9 (NNN-AAP) – The Australian government has ordered a review of the major telecommunications outage, that left millions without phone, mobile and Internet services.
More than 10 million Australians were impacted when Optus, the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider, crashed yesterday and remained offline for over 10 hours, causing disruptions to train lines, hospitals and digital payment systems.
Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, today announced that, her department would conduct an investigation into the outage, so the industry could learn from the incident.
“Connectivity is absolutely essential for Australian consumers and businesses, and the impacts of this outage were particularly concerning,” she said in a statement.
Government agency, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has launched a separate investigation into whether emergency calls from mobiles were affected during the outage.
In a statement, Optus said, it would fully cooperate with both reviews and was looking for ways to thank customers for their patience.
Businesses that were affected by the outage have called for Optus, which is owned by Singapore’s Singtel, to compensate them for losses.
Rowland said that, the community expected Optus to right its wrongs, and that it is “reasonable” for Optus to recompense people who were impacted.– NNN-AAP
