The Albanese Government late yesterday received the final report from its Optus Post-Incident Review.
Led by former Deputy Chair of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Mr Richard Bean, the post-incident review examined emergency call arrangements, customer communications and complaints handling during and after last year’s nationwide Optus outage.
The Report makes recommendations aimed at ensuring the telco industry learns from this outage.
Whilst no network is immune from outages, the review identifies opportunities for industry, regulators and government to better mitigate impacts and respond to such events, particularly with respect to the Triple Zero service.
The Government welcomes Mr Bean’s work, and thanks industry for its engagement.
The Review was granted a short extension in February 2024, after additional information was received from Optus. This information related to Optus’ network wilting arrangements, which is an industry practice where signals from mobile towers are powered down during disruptions in order for Triple Zero to be carried by another network.
While the technical cause of the outage was not within scope of the Review, the Government understands that the disruption to some Triple Zero calls was predominantly caused by a failure of Optus 3G towers to wilt.
The Government will consider the recommendations of the Review. The final report and the Government’s response will be publicly released in due course.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP:
“Last year’s Optus outage was incredibly disruptive for millions of Australians, and had serious impacts on public safety, access to essential services, and the ability for businesses to trade.
“The Government thanks Mr Richard Bean for the comprehensive Post-Incident Review and its final report. We want industry and government to learn the lessons from this event, and take steps to prevent this type of disruption occurring again.
“We will consider the recommendations from the Review, and publicly release both the final report and the Government’s response in due course.”
