Networks

Telstra outage: Failed emergency services calls, train chaos, payment systems down

Telco says issues all sorted, but transport networks expected to be disrupted well into Thursday

Aussie telco Telstra is currently battling the mother of all borks after blaming a “software defect” for an outage that downed emergency services calls and public transport lines.Telstra blamed the 12-hour outage, which it discovered at around 0430 AEST on Wednesday, on issues at time-keeping servers located in datacenters in Sydney and Melbourne. It explicitly ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack.Australia’s Triple Zero Custodian, which oversees the functionality of the country’s emergency services line, confirmed that some calls were not connecting, according to communications minister Anika Wells.

This was also confirmed by Sarah Henderson, the country's shadow communications minister, who refused to apologize after claiming to have made two Triple Zero test calls to investigate the issues herself.