10 million people affected
Even emergency calls are not possible: half of Australia has no internet or telephone for hours
The outage began in the early hours of the morning
© Mick Tsikas / DPA
Due to an initially untraceable error, communication broke down completely in half of Australia. The outage caused chaos across the country.
Without the Internet, a large part of our society would hardly function anymore – from communication to transportation to healthcare. Australia found out on Wednesday (local time) how strong the dependency really is. Optus, the country’s second largest communications company, suffered a total failure. With far-reaching consequences.
It started first thing in the morning. At around four o’clock (local time) the Optus network collapsed. More than ten million Australians – around 40 percent of the population – suddenly had neither a telephone nor the Internet. Third-party providers using the Optus network were also affected.
Failure of half of society
The situation was particularly dramatic in medical emergencies: Optus customers were unable to make emergency calls via either mobile or landline networks. The hotlines of more than 70 hospitals also collapsed.
However, the consequences were felt throughout society. In several cities, local public transport was completely canceled and numerous payment terminals stopped operating. Cash was also difficult to obtain: many ATMs were also affected by the outage.
But the consequences were also noticeable in everyday life. “I’m waiting for the results but I just can’t get through,” Danielle Hopwood complained to the BBC. She was waiting for important test results about her father’s cancer treatment. A caller to a local radio station said she discovered the outage because her cat’s feeder lost its Wi-Fi connection.
Cause still unknown
Finding the cause was initially difficult. It was only after hours that the technicians were able to slowly restart parts of the network. By the time most of the network was back online, it was 5:30 p.m. (local time).
The exact cause of the gigantic failure is not yet publicly known. The fault lies “deep in our network and has affected Optus customers’ mobile, landline and broadband services,” Communications Minister Micelle Rowland told the press. “Until we have done a complete, in-depth analysis of the error, we cannot provide any further information,” said Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin.
Although Optus was the victim of one of the country’s largest hacker attacks last year, Rowland largely ruled out a cyberattack as the cause. “It’s really extremely unlikely. Our systems are actually extremely stable,” she emphasized. Under Australian law, companies are required to report cyberattacks within 72 hours. The share price of the company, which belongs to Singapore’s SingTel, fell by almost five percent.