Optus triple-zero outage could trigger 'huge' consequences after three deaths

A leading Australian solicitor warned Optus could face substantial civil claims after three people died when their calls to Triple Zero were interrupted during a network upgrade.

The outage on Thursday disrupted emergency calls across South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, prompting investigations and sharp political criticism. Optus chief executive Stephen Rue said the company conducted a network upgrade on that day and acknowledged a technical failure affected some emergency calls, adding that roughly 600 Triple Zero calls may have been impacted and that a portion did not go through.

Legal and political figures quickly weighed in. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas condemned the incident as unacceptable and said Optus sprang to a media briefing before informing the state government that deaths had occurred, calling the handling “reprehensible conduct.” He emphasized that the government would review the company’s obligations in the wake of the outage.

In an interview on Weekend Today, lawyer Sam Macedone said Optus could face civil compensation and damages, arguing the telco breached its duty of care to customers during the outage. He said the question would be whether the deaths could be linked directly to the inability to reach Triple Zero, but that if such a link were established, “huge claims for compensation” could follow. He noted that the 2023 outage had already prompted a significant penalty.

The affected victims were identified by authorities as an eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, north of Adelaide, and a 68-year-old woman from Queenstown in the state’s northwest; a third person died in Western Australia and has not yet been identified. SA Police confirmed the infant and the woman’s deaths, while the WA incident remained under investigation.

Macedone said Optus had to demonstrate that the deaths resulted from the outage, not other factors, and that proving causation would be central to any claims. “If you could establish all those things, then I think Optus is going to face some huge claims for compensation,” he said.

The episode comes less than a year after Australia’s telecommunications regulator fined Optus more than A$12 million for breaching emergency-call rules during the company’s 2023 outage—the nation’s most extensive mobile-network disruption. An independent investigation found Optus had failed to provide access to emergency services for 2,145 people and had not completed welfare checks for 369 others who had tried to call Triple Zero during the outage.

Rue stressed the importance of reliable access to emergency services. “Before you do any upgrade, you should put in place plans that if something goes wrong you can immediately put things back in operation again,” he said. He added that 600 people trying to reach Triple Zero could not be excused and that the statutory obligations appeared to have been breached across multiple areas, especially when lives were at stake.

There is still questions about why only Triple Zero calls were affected and not all calls. Communications Minister Anika Wells characterized the incident as “incredibly serious and completely unacceptable,” saying the outage demonstrated that emergency-service providers have obligations to ensure access to emergency lines. She expressed sympathy for those who lost loved ones and confirmed ongoing monitoring of the situation and the company’s response.

Daily Mail has contacted Optus for comment as officials seek more clarity on how the outage unfolded and what remediation steps are planned to prevent a repeat. The company faces scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and the public as it works through the incident and its aftermath.