While the Optus outage caused frustration for millions of Aussies, for one mother it could have been a matter of life or death for her kids.
Melissa Kearney’s youngest two children, aged 13 and six, were diagnosed with epilepsy as toddlers and for her teen daughter, Emma, the condition is quite severe.
So when Emma did have a seizure yesterday during the Optus blackout – there was no way for anyone to call her and let her know.
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Thankfully, Melissa’s boyfriend had wifi with Telstra and was able to alert her via email.
As the fallout over how Optus handled the aftermath continues, the telco has offered those impacted an additional 200GB of data to use up until the end of the year.
But this miserly “reward” instead of compensation means nothing to a frustrated Melissa.
“I have got unlimited data so that actually gives me nothing,” she told Today.
“The biggest thing for me is just recognise what you have done, recognise the impact you’ve had on real people because quite clearly you have got no idea.”
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Melissa’s story is just one of the 10 million people who were without service for more than 14 hours this week, with vital services like ambulances and hospitals also impacted and businesses who lost millions due to downed services.
“I’m frustrated. incredibly frustrated, the more I see of their response, the angrier I get,” Melissa said.
“To be fair, initially I was really understanding that things happen, but their response is so pathetic and so out of touch with the impact it actually had on real people that it just increases that frustration even more.
“It could potentially have had impacts life or death – they are just out of touch.”
See Today’s full chat with Melissa in the video above