A sorry Telstra says it has restored most services after a major network outage caused widespread disruption across Australia, hitting public transport, payments systems and mobile customers in an embarrassing failure for the country’s largest telco.
Chief financial officer Michael Ackland, stepping in for chief executive Vicki Brady who was on annual leave, apologised to customers and said they could still trust the telco.
Mobile customers reported lost internet connections, alongside intermittent call and messaging services, although Telstra said almost 90 per cent of the network had been restored by Wednesday lunchtime.
The outage began about 4.30am on Wednesday and was blamed on faulty server equipment at two Telstra-owned data centres in Sydney and Melbourne.
It affected millions of customers and disrupted internet-dependent payment services, as well as public transport systems in Victoria, NSW and Canberra.
“We know customers rely on our connectivity it has been a big disruption to many people’s days,” he said, “We apologise for that.”
The telco’s finance chief also defended the outages as intermittent and said Australians could still trust the telco despite the scale of the disruption.
“I believe Australia can absolutely have faith in its biggest telco, and that is Telstra,” he said.
Telstra said its initial assessment showed no triple-zero emergency calls had failed to connect, although it was continuing to investigate whether emergency services were affected.
“We don’t believe this matter has impacted triple-zero in the same way as other calls,” Mr Ackland said. “It uses different network settings, but we are continuing to investigate every angle.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells said Telstra had conducted about 36 welfare checks morning to ensure all triple-zero calls had been answered.
An outage at rival Optus last year was linked to failed emergency calls and four deaths, sparking a public backlash, regulatory and political scrutiny.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Government was working with Telstra and labelled the outage “deeply disturbing” given the widespread disruption to households, businesses and essential services.
Questions remain over whether affected customers will receive compensation, with the telco yet to outline any reimbursement plans.
“Our focus at the moment is on getting things up and running and we will deal with customers after the event,” said Mr Ackland. “We will update you as soon as we know anything more.”
Political football
The outage also turned into a political football as Labor’s Communications Minister Annika Wells slammed One Nation Deputy Barnaby Joyce for suggesting China may have hacked the telco’s network.
“I don’t want to be paranoid, or a conspiracy theorist,” Mr Joyce said. “But we know there’s the capacity for China to affect that sort of software or network.”
Ms Wells criticised the comments, while Telstra said there was no evidence of a cyber attack or malicious activity.
“We don’t yet know the root cause, we are investigating that urgently and will provide updates as we get them,” Mr Ackland said.
The failure comes less than two years after Telstra was fined $3 million by the Australian Communications and Media Authority over a similar outage in March 2024.
Ms Wells, who is on holiday, said ACMA would conduct a full investigation into Wednesday’s outage.
Shares in the $54b telco closed down 3 per cent at $4.92, underperforming a 0.2 per cent fall in the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Morgan Stanley analysts have suggested Elon Musk’s satellite business SpaceX may soon offer alternative internet services that could eat into Telstra’s market dominance.
Existing chief executive Ms Brady has been in the top job at Telstra since September 2022.
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