Optus Admits Process Failures in 000 Outage Linked to Multiple Deaths Across Australia

Optus has faced severe criticism and pressure following a 13-hour failure of its emergency triple zero (000) call system, which has been linked to at least four deaths. The outage was caused by a botched firewall update and was not promptly addressed because Optus failed to follow established processes, ignoring multiple customer reports of the issue. CEO Stephen Rue apologized for the distress caused and acknowledged the failure, while authorities and the public have demanded stronger accountability and reconsideration of Optus's license to operate. The government has expressed frustration over this being the second such outage in two years, prompting calls for stiff penalties against the telco. Controversy also arose from Optus's unusual claim blaming carrier pigeons as part of their emergency backup system, which was met with public skepticism. Authorities continue to investigate the impact of the outage and its connection to the deaths, with some deaths now deemed unlikely to be linked to the failure.