A new probe into the Optus outage will examine how more than 200 calls to triple-0 failed to connect during the blackout.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland will on Tuesday release the terms of reference for review of the November 8 incident – which affected 10 million customers and disrupted small businesses, hospitals and train networks.
It also prompted the resignation of chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who was roundly criticised for failing to front up for hours after Optus went dark and for her handling of the fallout.
Ms Bayer Rosmarin was hauled before a Senate inquiry into the outage, where she revealed 228 calls to the triple-0 hotline failed to go through during the 12-hour outage.
She said the emergency hotline “absolutely should have worked” before pointing out that Optus did not manage the system.
The functioning of triple-0 during the outage, and whether changes are needed to ensure the hotline remains open in future events, will be a key focus of the Federal Government’s inquiry.
The inquiry – to be led by Ad Standards boss Richard Bean – will also look at the role of Government in responding to national outages, communication with customers and the handling of complaints and compensation in the aftermath of the Optus incident.
It will also have scope to look at circumstances in which other telcos might be needed to support a rival when its network goes down.
“We need to learn the lessons from this serious incident, because no network is immune from technical faults or outages,” Ms Rowland said.
Feedback from industry, consumer groups and Commonwealth and State Government agencies will feed into the review, which is due to report to the Government by February 29.
“Australians expect and deserve better from their communications service providers when these kinds of incidents arise and I would encourage all to have their say – from impacted businesses and industry through to consumers,” Ms Rowland said.
