ABC News Daily Will Optus ever be held accountable?
Sep 24, 2025
Dr. Suelette Dreyfus, a technology expert from the University of Melbourne, delves into the critical issues surrounding the recent Optus outage that left hundreds unable to call emergency services. She explains the significant human error during a network upgrade that led to three tragic deaths, recounts harrowing stories of callers who couldn't reach help, and critiques Optus's evasive public relations. Dreyfus emphasizes systemic issues in the telecom industry and discusses the need for tougher regulations and accountability to restore public trust.
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Emergency Service Failure Killed People
- Optus' network upgrade error left emergency triple zero calls failing and contributed to deaths.
- Suelette Dreyfus says lives depend on reliable emergency services and this failure is inexcusable.
Caller’s Personal Emergency Story
- A caller described her mother falling under a scooter and multiple triple zero call attempts failed with ‘call failed’.
- She then lost trust in relying on Optus for future emergencies.
Process Deviation Broke Failover
- Optus deviated from an established upgrade process that normally diverts calls away from the affected core network.
- That deviation prevented failover and stopped emergency calls switching to rival networks.