Australia on Monday foreshadowed changes to the country's telecommunications industry after a major company's failure to connect hundreds of emergency calls last week was linked to four deaths.
Optus, Australia's second-largest telecom company, blamed a “technical failure” on Thursday (September 18, 2025) last week for 624 calls failing to connect to emergency services. While Americans call “9-1-1” in an emergency, Australians call “0-0-0.” Someone died in four of those Australian emergencies.
Optus was fined more than 12 million Australian dollars ($8 million) for failing to meet emergency call rules during another network outage on Nov. 8, 2023.
Telstra, Australia's largest telecom company, was fined AUD 3 million ($2 million) in December last year for failing to comply with emergency call rules during a technical disruption at its “0-0-0” call centre.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Monday (September 22, 2025) the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the industry watchdog, was investigating what went wrong last week.
