Kirsty Needham/Portal
An Optus store in Sydney, Australia, on November 8th.
Millions of Australians were left without a phone or internet connection on Wednesday after an unexplained nationwide outage at the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider.
The outage crippled payment systems and online operations and led to morning rush-hour chaos as train networks and ride-hailing services were briefly disrupted in some cities.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin ruled out a cyberattack, but in an interview on ABC Radio did not give a reason for the sixth outage or say how long it would take for services to be restored.
“It’s highly unlikely (that the problem started within the software on Optus networks), our systems are actually very stable… This is very, very rare,” she said.
“We’re working really hard to get it up and running as quickly as possible.”
Optus is the Australian unit of telecommunications company Singapore Telecommunications and has more than 10 million customers, about 40% of the Australian population.
“Without my phone I can hardly do anything. I’m looking for a bank and if you can’t access your phone and Google, you’re pretty much lost,” said Angela Ican outside the Optus store in Sydney’s CBD
Construction worker Kyle, who did not give his full name, said he wanted answers from Optus.
“I was late for work and couldn’t tell my boss. When I arrived on site I couldn’t find my boss – it was a big day,” he told Portal.
An Optus spokesman told Portal in a statement that the company “sincerely apologizes to customers.”
Commonwealth Bank, the country’s largest lender, said in a statement that some customers may experience difficulties with some of its services.
Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said she had “limited” information about the outage.
“What we know is that this is a serious mistake. It took place deep within the network. “It has far-reaching implications for mobile, fixed-line and broadband services for Optus customers,” Rowland told reporters.
According to media reports, Melbourne’s train networks were forced to shut down for about 30 minutes due to the outage, causing delays during the morning rush.
“Significant delays continue to occur on all lines due to select changes and cancellations,” the city’s subway service said on X.
Hospitals and emergency services across the country were also affected by the outage.
Telephone services at Ramsay Health Care, which owns 70 hospitals and clinics in Australia, were affected.
“At this point we do not know how long this outage will last. If you need to contact your local Ramsay Hospital, please make inquiries using the contact form on the local hospital website,” it said on its Facebook page.
Triple zero (“000”) emergency calls did not work over the Optus landline.
“We encourage all customers who need to contact emergency services to use a mobile line to call 000,” Optus said in a statement.