When phone networks fail: The deadly cost of Optus’s latest crisis

The unthinkable happened to families across three Australian states on 18 September when their desperate calls for help simply wouldn’t connect.

An eight-week-old baby in Gawler and a 68-year-old woman in Adelaide passed away, along with at least one other person in Western Australia, after they were unable to call emergency services during Optus’s latest network failure.

Now, over a quarter of Optus’s over a quarter of Optus’s more than 10 million customers are seriously considering hanging up on the embattled telecommunications giant for good. The devastating human cost of corporate failures has finally hit home for many Australians who rely on their phones as a lifeline to emergency services.

What went catastrophically wrong

The outage occurred on 18 September when a scheduled firewall upgrade in South Australia triggered a communications outage that blocked triple-zero calls across South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and far-western New South Wales, with Optus chief executive officer Stephen Rue admitting that 'standard processes were not followed'.

For 13 gruelling hours, around 600 emergency calls across these states found themselves cut off from emergency services when they needed help most.

While regular phone calls continued to work normally, the specific systems that route emergency calls to triple-zero had failed completely.

The company has blamed human error, with CEO Stephen Rue stating that 'standard processes were not followed' and dismissing suggestions that parent company Singtel had cut spending, saying 'That's not an investment issue, that's people not following process'.

'Triple-zero availability is the most fundamental service telcos must provide to the public.'
ACMA Chair Nerida O'Loughlin, commenting on a 2024 enforcement action related to an earlier outage.

The human cost that changed everything

The statistics are stark, but behind them lie real families facing unimaginable tragedy.

South Australian Police confirmed that an eight-week-old boy from Gawler West and a 68-year-old woman from Queenstown died during the outage period. Police later said the infant’s death was ‘unlikely’ to have been contributed to by the outage.

The media also reported a third death in WA, and some outlets later referenced a possible fourth death under investigation.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas was scathing in his criticism, telling reporters: 'I have not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian corporation with respect to communication worse than this'.

His anger stemmed partly from Optus failing to inform his government about the deaths before announcing them publicly.

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells condemned the company, stating it had 'failed the Australian people' and warning: 'They can expect to suffer significant consequences as a result.'

A pattern of failure emerges

This wasn't Optus's first rodeo with emergency service failures. The company had already paid penalties totalling more than $12 million for breaches during its nationwide network outage in November 2023, which left 2,145 people unable to access emergency calls and saw the company fail to conduct 369 required welfare checks.

The pattern is troubling:

Optus failure timeline

• September 2022: Major data breach affecting 10 million customers
• November 2023: 14-hour nationwide outage, $12 million in fines
• 18 September 2025: Triple-zero outage linked to deaths
• 28 September 2025: Another outage in Dapto, New South Wales, lasting over nine hours and affecting around 4,500 users

Customer exodus: The numbers tell the story

The polling data reveals the depth of customer anger. Twenty-seven per cent of Optus customers have considered leaving the network entirely, that's nearly three million people potentially walking away from Australia's second-largest telecommunications provider.

Perhaps more telling is that 47 per cent of surveyed customers rated Optus's handling of the crisis as 'poor or very poor', while only 23 per cent thought the company's response was good or very good.

For older Australians, who may be more dependent on emergency services and less comfortable with technology changes, this breach of trust in such a fundamental service cuts particularly deep.

Your alternatives: What are the options?

If you're among those considering a switch, here's what you need to know about your alternatives:

Telstra: The coverage king

Telstra customers have access to the carrier's entire network footprint, which covers 99.7 per cent of the Australian population with 4G. Opensignal named Telstra the best-performing network for overall coverage experience and 5G coverage specifically, though you'll pay a premium for this reliability.

Vodafone: The budget option

Vodafone covers 96 per cent of the population, making it the smallest of the big three networks. However, Vodafone tends to offer more data at slightly cheaper prices than both Telstra and Optus.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs)

Many experts suggest considering a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which leases network space from the big three. Boost Mobile is unique as the only MVNO with access to the full Telstra network.

What the government is doing

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has launched an investigation into the incident, with Chair Nerida O'Loughlin stating the authority will be seeking significant information from Optus.

Communications Minister Anika Wells confirmed that the government has 'accepted all recommendations from the previous Optus Outage Review and has fully implemented 12 of the 18 recommendations, with the remaining six underway', but acknowledged that 'the fact three people are dead because they couldn't reach triple-zero due to yet another network outage highlights the urgent need for more action'.

The regulatory response includes requirements for:

Emergency backup plans while networks fail

While investigations continue and penalties mount, practical steps can help protect you and your family:

Emergency Preparedness Tips

• Keep a landline if possible—different networks often remain operational when mobile services fail
• Know your neighbours' phone numbers and providers in case your network is down
• Consider a backup mobile service on a different network for emergencies
• Keep emergency service locations and direct numbers written down
• Ensure family members know how to access emergency services through multiple methods

  
  

The bigger picture for Australian telecommunications

This latest failure adds to Optus's 'heavily tarnished reputation after a series of incidents in the past three years, including a 14-hour network outage in November 2023 and a massive data breach that leaked the data of as many as 10 million customers in September 2022'.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network noted that Optus has been marked as Australia's 'least trusted brand' and will need to 'work to restore [its] relationship with Australian consumers', with 'the 2022 data breach, 2023 outage and alleged misselling to vulnerable customers' seeing the company 'plummet to become the most distrusted company in Australia'.

For telecommunications companies, the message is clear: when networks fail, people die. The question now is whether Optus can rebuild the trust it has systematically destroyed, or whether millions of Australians will vote with their feet and their wallets.