More than 30,000 Optus customers in the Hunter region lost service yesterday after a telecommunications tower was vandalised, cutting fibre lines and disrupting triple-zero access for over a dozen callers.
Optus confirmed welfare checks on 13 customers who attempted to call emergency services during the outage found no adverse outcomes. Eight calls were referred to NSW Police, which confirmed no harm, while one caller needing an ambulance reached triple-zero through another method.
The outage, affecting 15 postcodes, occurred when fibre lines were cut at a tower in Hexham, north of Newcastle. NSW Police are investigating the vandalism, which Optus described as deliberate damage to infrastructure.
The incident has renewed calls for an independent investigation into Australia's triple-zero system. Shadow Minister for Telecommunications Melissa McIntosh told ABC Newcastle Breakfast the vulnerability of emergency call infrastructure is alarming, urging a probe into the 'triple-0 ecosystem'.
Optus remains under a Senate inquiry following a September outage linked to three deaths. A government spokesperson noted that telecommunications infrastructure is already regulated as critical under laws passed last year.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is reviewing the matter to assess Optus's compliance with regulatory obligations. Optus apologised for the disruption and said call diversion to Telstra's network during the outage was successful.
