‘Our controls were not good enough’: Telstra’s outage admission

July 17, 2026 — 10:57amTelstra has conceded its mass network outage may have been avoided if a software update had been applied to the device that triggered it, and that its internal controls “were not good enough”, in a submission lodged with a Senate inquiry hours before executives face questioning.The telco’s submission, made public before Friday’s midday hearing, gives its most detailed account yet of the failure that cut hundreds of people off from Triple Zero, halted trains and brought down Eftpos terminals nationally.Telstra has conceded its mass network outage may have been avoided if a software update had been applied to the device that triggered it, and that its internal controls “were not good enough”.Eamon GallagherTelstra says a technician arrived at its Exhibition Street exchange in Melbourne late on July 7 to replace the chassis housing a network timing server, prompted by a faulty backup power feed. When power was restored at 3.38am the next morning, a GPS card inside the device “did not operate as expected” and the server reset its date to 2006. The wrong date then spread through the network, invalidating authentication certificates and knocking customers offline.The company blames an earlier design change to the equipment that was never properly documented, leaving the maintenance team unaware of how the device would behave when restarted. That change had been made to fix an earlier fault.“A software update had also not been applied to the device,” the submission says. “Had that software update been completed or had the design change been properly documented and reflected in the maintenance procedure, the outage may not have occurred.”Telstra adds: “That is clearly unacceptable. If maintenance work can trigger this kind of outage, it suggests our controls were not good enough.”This masthead first revealed that the outage was caused by the device “time travelling” back to 2006. Telstra’s submission does not disclose the model of the server at issue or whether it should have been replaced.It comes as executives including chief executive Vicki Brady, chief financial officer Michael Ackland and Triple Zero manager Jane Elkington are set to front senators at midday.More to come.The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.From our partners