Australian minister asks to speak with Singtel over Optus emergency call outage
The Optus outage has been linked with several deaths, with some customers unable to reach emergency services when needed.
Singtel sign on a building at the central business district in Singapore on Mar 14, 2025. (File photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
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SINGAPORE: Australian Minister for Communications Anika Wells said on Thursday (Sep 25) that she has asked to speak with Singtel in Australia next week over its subsidiary Optus' network outage.
The outage has been linked with several deaths, with some customers unable to reach emergency services when needed.
Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon apologised on Wednesday and said the company is working with Optus to ensure a "thorough investigation".
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast on Thursday, Ms Wells said the issue "remains a constant watch for me".
"And whilst we have to let the investigation play out and we have to be considered in a government response to the results of those investigation, meeting with Singtel, I think, is an important step for us, and also for us to give Australian taxpayers confidence in our Triple Zero system, particularly ahead of the summer disaster season," she added.
When asked if she would be speaking with the Singapore government about it, she said she had not asked to do that and wanted to "start with me meeting with Singtel in Australia next week".
The latest incident comes less than a year after Optus was fined A$12 million (US$7.9 million) by regulators for failing to provide emergency call services to thousands during a nationwide outage in 2023.
Ms Wells said that "it is incredibly disappointing that we are here so soon after Optus’ last failure in this space".
She added that "from what we know so far, there has been ineffective implementation" of recommendations made to Optus after the previous disruption.
Optus was fined US$66 million on Wednesday over "appalling" sales conduct.
A federal court ruled that Optus should be punished for selling products to vulnerable customers between 2019 and 2023 that they did not need or want, leaving many in debt.
Many of these people were also Indigenous and lived in remote parts of the country.
Federal Court Justice Patrick O'Sullivan labelled the company's conduct as "extremely serious" and "appalling".
Consumers incurred thousands of dollars of debt while on modest incomes and became embarrassed or stressed over how they would pay these, he added.
