Telcos facing overhaul after Optus probe

Telecommunications firms are facing an overhaul after a senate probe into last year’s massive Optus outage recommended sweeping changes to the industry.

About 10 million Optus customers and more than 400,000 businesses were impacted when an apparent software update sparked complications across its Australia network on 8 November. Some customers could not even call 000.

The senate inquiry made seven recommendations in its report released on Friday, including an “enforceable communications standard” that would compel telcos to liaise with “government, emergency services and the public during national outages.”

The report also urgently recommended legislative action to reclassify carriers “as critical infrastructure providers.”

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the inquiry’s chair, said the report required “Optus and other telcos to work towards better network safeguards and a higher standard of public accountability in the future.”

“Optus failed millions of Australians and small businesses during the November 8 network outage,” she said.

“Not only did the communications network that many of us rely on fail, but the company itself failed to communicate and keep the public informed through the outage.”

Senator Hanson-Young said the recommendations aimed to boost cooperation between government and telcos to manage future outages.

“In 2024 people expect to be able to call triple 0 in an emergency, to be able to access internet banking for their small business, or to contact their kids or grandparents via their mobile phone,” the senator said.

“It’s therefore appropriate that telecommunications carriers are included as critical infrastructure providers via amendments to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018.”

The report called for better dispute resolution experiences for customers, recommending the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to speed up “development of a tailored dispute resolution mechanism to ensure appropriate compensation” for mass outages.

It also recommended the industry regulator review Optus’ action to prevent another incident from happening again.

In a statement to NewsWire, Optus government and regulatory vice president Andrew Sheridan said the company welcomed the inquiry’s work and that it “the importance of having communications processes and protocols that prioritise public safety.”

“Ensuring the safety of our customers is of the utmost importance to Optus and we remain committed to continuously improving our support for customers at critical times,” he said.

“We would like to apologise again to all our customers who were affected by the outage on 8 November 2023, particularly those who could not connect to emergency services and business owners whose services were disrupted.

Mr Sheridan said Optus would continue to work regulatory bodies to implement new standards “including the new rules around keeping customers informed and updated”.

Then Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin was also criticised in the senate report for failing to keep the public and government properly informed over the incident with “proactive and timely updates”.

“Optus’ public communications during the outage were manifestly inadequate,” the report said.

The senators notes Ms Bayer Rosmarin made her first public statement six hours after the incident started.

“In the committee’s view, it stretches credulity that Optus did not think to update

the Australian public sooner and in a more accessible way given the severity of

the circumstances.”