Outrage in Australia Following Fatal Telecom Outage

Australian officials have promised telecommunications giant Optus will face significant consequences over a systems outage linked to multiple deaths.

The incident last week left hundreds of people across more than half of the country unable to call emergency services for 13 hours.

Optus - one of the country's two major providers - says at least three people died as a result, and its chief executive has apologised to their families and the public for the completely unacceptable failure.

The company is under fire for its delayed handling of the incident - the second such outage for the firm in two years - and the nation's communications regulator is investigating.

More than 600 calls to emergency services failed last Thursday, primarily coming from South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. At least two calls to triple-0 made from south-western New South Wales also did not connect.

However, Optus waited 40 hours to inform the public about the incident, and also did not tell regulators until the issue was resolved - counter to standard practice, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) says.

In a press conference on Friday afternoon, Optus boss Stephen Rue blamed the outage on a technical fault identified during a network upgrade.

He confirmed that welfare checks conducted after services were restored indicated three deaths, including a baby boy, though police later stated that the network failure was unlikely to be the cause in that particular case. Authorities in WA also believe a fourth person died after their call to triple-0 failed.

Mr Rue noted that the company was unaware of the incident for 13 hours despite multiple reports from customers about the network not working, which he admitted were not escalated or handled appropriately.

I would like to reiterate how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of four people who could not reach emergency services in their time of need, Mr Rue said on Sunday.

A statement from Acma emphasized that Australians must always be able to contact emergency services, as this is the most fundamental responsibility of every telecommunications provider.

Communications Minister Anika Wells expressed disbelief that such failures could occur again so soon, stating that the company had perpetuated an enormous failure on the Australian people and detailing the significant consequences they would face.

Ongoing investigations are expected to yield more updates, with officials expecting transparent communication from Optus regarding the outcomes.