Singtel’s Optus investigating emergency hotline outage that caused death of three people

The Australian telco will co-operate fully and transparently with all relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies

Singtel’s Australian subsidiary Optus is investigating a series of emergency call failures after carrying out a network upgrade.

Australian media has reported that three people have died after triple-zero calls – the number to call in the event of life-threatening situations or emergencies – were blocked following the network outage.

Optus “apologises unreservedly for this failure”, read its media release in Singtel’s bourse filing on Friday (Sep 19). A number of customers were unable to get through to emergency services in their time of need, though normal calls were still connecting during this period.

This technical failure has now been rectified, said Optus.

Optus added that welfare checks with the three households where a member has died are ongoing.

Its chief executive officer, Stephen Rue, said: “I want to offer a sincere apology to all customers who could not connect to emergency services when they needed them most. And I offer my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the people who passed away. I am so sorry for your loss.”

“What has happened is completely unacceptable. We have let you down. You have my assurance that we are conducting a thorough investigation and once concluded we will share the facts of the incident publicly,” he added.

Optus also said that it will co-operate fully and transparently with all relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies while the company investigates this matter further.

Shares of Singtel rose 1.4 per cent or S$0.06 to close at S$4.41 on Friday, before the announcement.