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Telstra reports its network outage, which began in the early hours of this morning, was fully resolved at 4pm today. This comes after the telco reported a 90% resolution as of 10am.
But many customers might still have problems with connectivity in the form of no reception or an intermitted connection. During a statement this evening, Telstra CFO Michael Ackland recommended all customers restart their devices to ensure proper function.
This not only applies to Telstra customers, but anyone who has a mobile plan delivered via the Telstra network, including via smaller providers on the Telstra Wholesale network. Some examples include Boost Mobile, Belong, Belong, Everyday Mobile, Tangerine, and ALDI Mobile, among others.
As for the effect the Telstra network outage had on Triple Zero calls, the telco conducted testing early this morning and confirmed calling was working successfully. Even so, Ackland reported 333 calls were identified as either failing to connect or dropping out early.
In these instances, Telstra follows up with welfare checks. The majority of failed calls were able to be addressed via an SMS or phone call check, with six people so far confirming a state of distress, at which point Telstra referred them to the appropriate emergency services.
At present, Telstra has been unable to successfully conduct a welfare check on 79 of the 333 callers. For each of the 79, the telco has worked with state police to arrange a physical welfare check. The details of these checks are currently unreleased.
The volume of required welfare checks was higher than Telstra expected. Ackland surmised this could have been due to people anxiously testing if they could still connect to Triple Zero, then hanging up once the call was successful.
The telco is still investigating the outage, but “is confident” the root cause was a software defect, which has already been identified and isolated. Telstra will provide further details once the investigation is complete.
Ackland made sure to clearly state the outage was not the result of a cyber attack.
In February, it came to light that Telstra planned to axe around 200 jobs as it expanded its use of AI. When asked if there could be a link between recent Telstra layoffs and today’s outage, Ackland replied he knew of nothing to suggest it was due to “any change in staffing or expertise”. But it’s still unclear if there is a link between AI and the fault itself.
Ackland also took the opportunity to apologise. “There is absolutely no doubt we’ve created a level of anxiety in our customers today in their hour of need that is not acceptable”.
Alex Angove-Plumb
Digital Content Editor
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