Optus customers in Victoria have suffered through another outage, which impacted customers in and around Melton just hours before it was revealed the telco’s embattled boss Kelly Bayer Rosmarin had tendered her resignation.
The telecommunications company said an underground fibre break caused service issues for users in the suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne – less than a fortnight after 10 million customers were left without mobile data or internet for about 14 hours on November 8.
Residents in the affected areas experienced disruptions to their mobile, voice and data services.
“Technicians are onsite to repair the fibre and restore services. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience,” an Optus spokesperson said in a statement.
Down Detector said the latest network failure begun about 8.30am while Optus said connection was restored more than an hour later.
Ms Rosmarin on the same day announced it was an appropriate time for her to step down from the chief role and wished the company success in its future.
“On Friday I had the opportunity to appear before the Senate to expand on the cause of the network outage and how Optus recovered and responded,” she said in a statement on Monday.
“I was also able to communicate Optus’ commitment to restore trust and continue to serve customers. Having now had time for some personal reflection, I have come to the decision that my resignation is in the best interest of Optus moving forward.”
Ms Rosmarin fronted a Senate Inquiry on Friday to answer to the government about Optus’ response to the mass blackout and dodged grilling on her future at the telco.
She insisted that her “entire focus” was on recovering from the outage and it has “not been a time to be thinking of myself”.
Optus has been under fire for its lack of communication to customers during the November 8 outage, which started about 4am and failed to release a statement until almost three hours later.
The network failure also affected the ability for users to dial triple-zero from a landline, which was a significant vein of inquiry for the government.
Greens Senator and Chair of the Senate Inquiry Sarah Hanson-Young thanked the former chief for fronting up last week after news of her resignation dropped.
“This was never about which individual is CEO, this is about ensuring millions of Australians have access to what is an essential service; including the ability to call 000 in an emergency, access government services, contact loved ones, and make and take essential payments,” she said in a statement on Monday.
Ms Hanson-Young confirmed the inquiry will continue to focus on stronger regulations for telcos to protect the community during a mass outage.
Optus pointed the finger at a routine software upgrade, which the telco said caused the network failure, and stressed that it had taken measures to ensure it will not happen again.
Customers were compensated with 200gb of free data – which has been widely dismissed as tone deaf to its millions of customers and businesses that were left without critical services for most of the day.
The outgoing boss then appeared to make light of the small business owners who lost business when their EPTOS machines failed to work.
“I’m disappointed that a barber couldn’t do haircuts today,” she told Nine News on the day of the outage.
“That seems like one of the few things you can do without connectivity.”
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland earlier this month announced the government would conduct a “post-incident review” alongside the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s own review into the outage.
In the meantime, Chief Financial Officer Michael Venter will assume the role of interim CEO to helm the company through its damaged reputation.
Former Optus Business Managing Director Peter Kaliaropoulos will also rejoin the telco in the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer.
