The boss of Optus’ network operations has resigned four months after a widespread outage at the telco giant disrupted the lives of millions of Aussies.
In a statement the embattled telco confirmed Lambo Kanagaratnam, the managing director of the Optus network, had left the company on Friday.
His departure marks the second top-level executive to leave the company following the November 8 blackout that hit about 10 million customers and some 400,000 businesses.
Former CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin departed the telco on November 20.
Interim CEO Michael Venter said he had the “highest regard” for his abilities and service to Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecommunications provider.
“Personally, I have the highest regard for Lambo as someone who consistently demonstrates the characteristics that we all know him for,” he said in a message sent to Optus staff.
“He is calm under pressure, approachable, cares deeply about our people and our business and is always professional.
“Under his leadership, the Optus Network has been Australia’s fastest 5G network for over three years and now has over 4000 5G sites live across Australia.
“He led the acquisition of 25MHz of 900MHz in late 2021 to address Optus’ low band spectrum deficit, which this year will deliver a significantly improved customer experience as well as taking our 5G footprint to a larger customer base.
“He was a key member of the team that completed the sale of the ATN tower portfolio for $1.9Bn in 2021.
“And looking forward, our partnership with SpaceX to cover 100 per cent of Australia will be a game changer for Optus and our customers.”
The Optus website states Mr Kanagaratnam has spent more than 24 years in telecommunications.
Prior to joining Optus, Mr Kanagaratnam held several senior roles over a 15-year period with telecom company MTN in Africa and the Middle East.
Optus is recovering from two severe breakdowns.
In 2022, the company suffered a serious data breach in a cyber hack and on November 8, 2023, a daylong meltdown sent millions offline, crippling businesses and emergency services.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas threatened to pull contracts with the firm over the blackout.
“They have let their customers down throughout the state, including the government,” he said on the day.
“And Optus needs to respond swiftly, communicate effectively, with everybody about exactly what is going on here.”
Mr Malinauskas said his government would contemplate switching providers after first putting out the fires of the day.
“If Optus want to seek government as a customer, they need to be a reliable service in this modern age,” he said.
“Telecommunications is critical to the function of government.
“We have a contract with Optus, as do other governments around the country. That is something we will turn our mind to.”
Optus blamed the failure on changes to “routing information” following a routine upgrade to its systems.
“At around 4.05am Wednesday morning, the Optus network received changes to routing information from an international peering network (Singtel internet Exchange) following a routine software upgrade,” Optus said in a statement last year.
“There routing information changes propagated through multiple layers in our network and exceeded preset safety levels on key routers which could not handle these.”
The statement said the action resulted in routers disconnecting from the Optus IP Core network to protect themselves.