Telstra boss Vicki Brady has apologised for this week’s mass outage, as Communications Minister Anika Wells vowed the government would hold the telco to account.

Communications minister Anika Wells and emergency management minister Kristy McBain have addressed the media about a widespread Telstra outage on Wednesday.

Telstra has defended its communication process, insisting the government and other stakeholders were informed "very, very early" in the morning.