Jack GramenzUpdated July 10, 2026 — 11:15am,first published July 10, 2026 — 6:47amWhat we learned from the Telstra press conferenceBy Nick BonyhadyLatest Posts11.04amSome compensation will be available, but details scarceBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra says it’ll compensate customers, but won’t explain how that will work beyond that it will be “business as usual”.“We will deal with that on a case-by-case basis with those customers,” chief financial officer Michael Ackland says.Telstra recommends customers seeking compensation call up and ask.Sam MooyHe won’t say how much money will be available or what the threshold is for it to be paid.But to apply, he says customers should contact Telstra via phone.11.00amTelstra boss couldn’t call her own employee because of outageBy Nick BonyhadyThe Telstra employee who told chief executive Vicki Brady about the outage couldn’t call her because his phone wasn’t working.That meant he had to use Microsoft Teams. Brady’s phone was working because she was overseas.“I was able to get back in touch with him via Teams,” she says.10.57amJob cuts not linked to outage, Telstra arguesBy Nick BonyhadyBrady says there’s no evidence that Telstra’s job cuts, which included several rounds in the hundreds under her leadership, contributed to the outage.The union representing her staff has claimed they were linked, but has not provided evidence of a direct connection.“There is no indication that any restructuring of jobs has impacted on this particular issue,” Brady says.“As I said, we will complete the investigation, and any of those lessons out of that, we will be very transparent and are committed to implementing changes that might be needed.”10.56amNo commitment to surrender bonuses: BradyBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra chief executive Vicki Brady has batted away questions about whether she and her top leadership team will surrender all or part of their bonuses as a result of the outage.Telstra boss Vicki Brady speaking on the outage for the first time after returning from an overseas holiday.Louise Kennerley“Our focus right now has been on getting the issue fixed, making sure all of our customers are back up and running, and then making sure we get the investigation done,” she says.“We again have very clear processes and governance when it comes to bonuses and remuneration. That process will happen, and it will be overseen by our board.”10.54amTelstra was working on timing node when outage startedBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra has confirmed work was under way on one of its timing nodes when the outage started.This masthead has reported that there was a firmware update happening, which went awry.“Yes [it restarted while a human was working on it], which is not unusual in a network of our size,” Brady says.“As you’re doing work on various components of it, you will have equipment restart. It should be able to restart and go back to the correct time. In this case, it triggered this software issue, which set the clocks back.”10.52amBrady defends Telstra’s handling of the outageBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra chief executive Vicki Brady has defended the company’s handling of the outage, saying it followed planned protocols.“We do have very clear processes around how we manage incidents, and they do escalate through different levels,” she says.“And this did propagate, and once it hit the right thresholds, all of the right parties were notified.”10.50amHolidaying Telstra boss wasn’t aware of outage for hoursBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra’s boss Vicki Brady wasn’t aware of the outage for several hours after it happened.The first signs of the outage emerged about 3am, before Telstra realised around 4.30am.But Brady, who was overseas, says she wasn’t told until about 7am.That was in the evening where Brady was.“I first became aware when I saw a missed message on Teams, and a voicemail was left for me by a head of our operations team. I immediately called him back on Teams, so we spoke within minutes,” Brady said.“I was contacted when it hit a certain threshold, and it was right around that time that we also then notified key stakeholders like the minister’s office and all of those key requirements.”10.47amTelstra addresses reports of a death in South AustraliaBy Nick BonyhadyTelstra chief financial officer Michael Ackland has acknowledged that police are investigating reports of a death in South Australia potentially linked to the telco’s outage.“Our thoughts are with the person’s family and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time,” he says.But the company has no record of numbers associated with the deceased person’s address “accessing Telstra’s mobile network to call Triple Zero, and more broadly, no record of any calls from those numbers to the Triple Zero platform,” Ackland said.“We’ve also confirmed there were no active outages affecting the local area at the time, and our records show good mobile signal strength at that location.“We can see that a related call was successfully made to Triple Zero from another number, which was connected and transferred to the relevant emergency services emergency authority correctly.”10.45amTelstra exec says outage fixed, but some businesses still affectedBy Nick BonyhadyChief financial officer Michael Ackland says Telstra fixed the broader outage yesterday, but there are still some knock-on effects for enterprise customers.“While the broader outage was resolved yesterday, we’ve continued to work closely with a small number of our enterprise customers on flow-on impacts for their services, including the Australian Rail Track Corporation,” Ackland says.He says Australians can be confident calling Triple Zero.The Telstra outage forced regional trains to halt.The Age1 of 3