Some people could not connect to Australia’s Triple Zero emergency call service during an Optus outage on 18 September 2025. Optus CEO Stephen Rue attributed the technical failure to a firewall upgrade, according to Network World; the cited ACMA material confirms the outage and subsequent regulatory action but does not establish the technical root cause. ACMA commenced Federal Court proceedings in July 2026, alleging 1,005 contraventions. Those allegations have not been presented as a court finding.
What happened during the Optus Triple Zero outage?
ACMA identifies 18 September 2025 as the date of the Optus Triple Zero outage. The regulator says the incident meant emergency calls did not reliably connect, leaving some people unable to reach potentially life-saving services. The available evidence does not support saying that every Optus customer or every emergency call was affected.
Network World reported that the outage affected South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and went undetected for 13 hours. It also reported that three people died after emergency calls failed. ACMA’s cited statements confirm the emergency-call impact but do not corroborate that reported death count, so it should be understood as Network World’s reporting.
What caused the outage?
Network World reported that Optus CEO Stephen Rue described a technical failure related to a firewall upgrade. Rue said initial testing and monitoring had not indicated a problem: ordinary calls were connecting, national call volumes raised no red flags, and no alarms alerted the company that some emergency calls were not reaching emergency services. These are Optus’s statements as reported by a news outlet, not a detailed technical postmortem or an independent forensic conclusion.
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The cited material does not establish the precise firewall configuration, the failure sequence, or a definitive technical cause. It therefore cannot support claims about a specific misconfiguration or that any particular tool or safeguard would have prevented the outage.
What is ACMA alleging against Optus?
ACMA announced on 30 July 2026 that it had commenced Federal Court proceedings against Optus Mobile Pty Limited. The regulator alleges 1,005 contraventions relating to access to the emergency call service and carriage of calls to the relevant termination point. ACMA is seeking declarations and pecuniary penalties. Its announcement describes allegations and requested relief; it does not say that a court has decided the case.
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Investigation and obligations
On 13 October 2025, ACMA said it had opened an investigation into Optus’s compliance with emergency-call and related rules. It described obligations to carry emergency calls and conduct welfare checks after unsuccessful calls during a significant outage. The investigation also covered communications about the outage, notification of the Emergency Call Person (Telstra), and communications with other stakeholders. ACMA said it would publish findings after the investigation concluded.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How does this relate to the 2023 Optus outage?
The September 2025 incident followed a major Optus outage in November 2023 that had already prompted a government review and regulatory action. Network World reported that the Bean review made 18 recommendations, including cross-network carriage of emergency calls when connectivity is lost, a Triple Zero custodian, and six-monthly end-to-end testing. ACMA says regulatory requirements were strengthened after the 2023 outage and that Optus subsidiaries had paid more than A$12 million in penalties for breaches related to it. That figure concerns the 2023 response, not a penalty in the 2025 case.
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The two incidents make testing, monitoring, outage communications and network resilience relevant public concerns. But the cited material does not establish whether every recommendation was implemented, or that the 2025 outage proves that any particular measure failed.
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Sources and what they establish
- ACMA’s 30 July 2026 announcement sets out the court proceedings, alleged contraventions and relief sought.
- ACMA’s investigation statement, updated 13 October 2025, describes the investigation scope and relevant emergency-call obligations.
- Network World’s report, published 22 September 2025, carries Optus’s account of the firewall-upgrade connection and reports the outage’s locations, detection time and deaths.
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