A significant network failure from telecommunications provider Optus has severely disrupted services across Queensland, leaving customers without NBN internet, home phone connections, and affecting EFTPOS machines in businesses.
Widespread Disruption Across the State
The outage has impacted a broad swathe of the state, with reports coming in from major centres including Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, the Gold Coast, Rockhampton, Mackay, and Roma. Optus confirmed it was aware of an issue affecting customers in Brisbane and certain parts of Queensland, apologising for the disruption and stating teams were working to restore services.
Frustrated customers took to social media to report the problems, noting the outage had been ongoing for several hours before the company's official announcement. The exact number of affected customers remains unknown.
Critical Services Impacted
The technical fault has had serious knock-on effects beyond simple internet access. Calls from home phones and EFTPOS terminals in local shops have been rendered inoperable in the impacted areas. Most critically, the outage has also affected the ability to call emergency services through the Optus network, raising significant safety concerns.
This incident marks the second major outage for Optus in a short period, following a similar event in Melbourne just one week prior. That earlier disruption impacted an estimated 14,000 customers and also hindered calls to emergency services.
Ongoing Efforts and Customer Frustration
While Optus engineers are scrambling to identify and fix the root cause of the failure, the repeated nature of these outages is drawing sharp criticism. The disruption to both daily commerce and essential emergency communication links highlights the vulnerability of relying on single providers for critical infrastructure.
Customers are advised to seek alternative methods for contacting emergency services if required and to monitor Optus's official channels for further updates on the restoration timeline.
