Politics Now Optus' communication breakdown | Insiders On Background
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Oct 10, 2025 Luke Coleman, CEO of the Australian Telecommunications Alliance, shares expert insights on the recent Optus outage that jeopardized the triple-zero emergency network. He explains how a firewall upgrade caused the disruption and why the failure took time to detect. Coleman discusses the complexities of device roaming during outages and the investigation into whether the issues were network or device-related. He evaluates Optus' reporting obligations, potential enforcement actions, and the future of emergency call systems, stressing the importance of industry collaboration for safety.
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Triple-Zero Is An Ecosystem
- The triple-zero service is an ecosystem made of multiple networks, devices and emergency operators that all must interoperate perfectly.
- Different parts of that ecosystem face different regulatory obligations, complicating fault attribution.
Fog Of War During Outages
- Luke Coleman described the 'fog of war' in outages where call volumes fluctuate and initial reports may not reveal a widespread 000 failure.
- He noted call-centre reports can look like handset or local issues rather than a systemic triple-zero outage.
Device 'Camp On' Can Be Slow
- Devices implement a 'camp on' behaviour that should let phones switch to another operator when the home network is unavailable, but this is not instantaneous.
- The delay (often 15–30 seconds) and handset differences can create critical failures during emergencies.