A significant outage affecting Optus has left over 14,000 customers unable to make emergency calls to triple zero, marking the fourth incident of this nature in recent months. The latest disruption stems from an aerial fibre break impacting users in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula regions, southeast of Melbourne.
In a statement, Optus acknowledged the issue, saying it is currently under investigation. The company indicated that customers can only make emergency calls if they are within the coverage of another mobile network or have access to Wi-Fi.
This incident follows a series of previous outages that have raised concerns about the reliability of Optus’ network, particularly regarding access to emergency services. Notably, a scheduled firewall upgrade in South Australia on September 18, 2025, resulted in a communications failure that left approximately 600 triple zero calls unable to connect, a situation linked to the tragic deaths of three Australians. Optus CEO Stephen Rue attributed that failure to human error.
The repeated failures have led to growing frustration among users who rely on the service for critical communications. The current outage not only highlights the ongoing challenges faced by Optus but also raises questions about the company’s ability to maintain service continuity during emergencies.
As customers express their anger over these outages, Optus faces increasing scrutiny regarding its operational protocols and crisis management strategies. The company must address these concerns to restore customer trust and ensure that essential services remain accessible.
