Three people have died in Australia after hundreds of unsuccessful emergency calls were killed due to the Optus network outage.
Singapore’s largest carrier has apologised for halting emergency services in Australia.
Sintel, owner of Australia’s Telecom Ops, issued an apology Wednesday after hundreds of calls failed to hit Australia’s Triple Zero (000) emergency due to a major technical glitches last week.
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The Optus network outage on Thursday was linked to three deaths.
In a statement posted on the Singapore Stock Exchange’s website, Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said the company was “deeply sorry” about the incident.
“Our hearts are directed at the family and friends of those who have passed away and we know that Optus will reach the bottom of this problem,” Yuen said.
“We are working with Optus’ board and management to ensure a thorough investigation of this incident to prevent future recurrence.”
Yuen added that Singtel has committed to Optus’ “ongoing transformation” under CEO Stephen Rue, who took the job in November.
“Singtel Group has supported Optus by over $9.3 billion ($6.1 billion) over the past five years, making up a large part of building network infrastructure across Australia, and will continue to invest as needed to provide reliable communications services to all Australia,” Yuen said.
Rue also provided an apology.
“There is no word to express how sad I am about the very sad loss of four lives that have not been able to reach emergency services in a time of need,” he said.
Singtel and Optus said Australian executive Kerry Schott, who played senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Sydney Water, will lead an independent review on the suspension.
The apology comes as Optus, who was hit by the crisis, was fined $66 million on Wednesday for engaging in a sales practice that left vulnerable customers in debt-stricken thousands of dollars.
In a withered ruling, Judge Patrick O’Sullivan of the Federal Court of Australia said Optus’ sales practices were “merciless”, “crowsing” and “very serious.”
O’Sullivan said Optus made “overpressure or influence” “overpressure or influence” to buy products that are not needed or can’t afford, including multiple instances where staff sell plans to people living in areas without network coverage.
O’Sullivan said Telecom also mislead customers to believe certain products are free, unable to clearly explain the terms of the contract and pursued debt recovery if they engage in inappropriate sales practices.
O’Sullivan approved the fine after Optus and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission agreed to a penalty in June.
Optus, Australia’s second-largest communication, faces a series of regulatory penalties for major network failures in recent years.
In 2024, the company was fined about $9 million for another suspension that disrupted more than 2,000 triple zero calls the previous year.
In August, Australia’s Privacy Watchdog filed a lawsuit over a data protection failure in the 2022 cyberattack that released the personal information of around 9.5 million customers.
