The Morning Edition Life, death and Optus: Should the telcos be trusted to run Triple Zero?
11 snips
Sep 22, 2025 David Swan, Technology editor for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, breaks down the recent Optus outage affecting triple zero calls. He discusses the tragic consequences, including multiple deaths, and examines how a firewall upgrade led to this critical failure. Swan delves into the accountability of telecommunications companies and argues for the need for independent oversight of emergency services. The conversation raises key questions about trust in telcos and the urgency of investigations into the incident.
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Friday Afternoon Admission
- Optus' CEO gave a short Friday afternoon press conference acknowledging lives were lost and taking accountability.
- David Swan described the timing as a typical 'throwaway' news slot and said the CEO didn't detail the outage length.
600 Missed Emergency Calls
- About 600 people tried to call 000 and couldn't get through, forcing welfare checks on each person.
- Normal calls still worked, so the failure was isolated to the triple zero routing system.
Welfare Checks Revealed Fatalities
- Initial reports named four deaths across SA and WA after police welfare checks on people who couldn't reach 000.
- Later details suggested the eight-week-old likely reached help via another non-Optus phone.