Australian Emergency Hotline 000 Disrupted by Network Failure... 3 Dead

Eight-Week-Old Infant, 68-Year-Old Woman, and 74-Year-Old Man Die
Telecom Company Cites "Network Upgrade Error"

In Australia, the emergency 000 service-equivalent to Korea's 112 and 119 crime and accident hotlines-was disrupted due to a telecommunications company error, resulting in the deaths of three people.

According to Bloomberg and Australian public broadcaster ABC on September 20 (local time), telecommunications company Optus announced that, due to a network upgrade error on September 16, the 000 emergency call service was disrupted in the southern state of South Australia (SA), the western state of Western Australia (WA), and the Northern Territory. As a result, approximately 600 customers in these regions who attempted to make 000 calls were affected, and the company confirmed that three of them tragically died.

Optus logo, Australian telecommunications company. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

According to police, the three deceased were an eight-week-old male infant and a 68-year-old woman in South Australia, and a 74-year-old man in Western Australia. The specific circumstances surrounding their deaths have not been disclosed.

Optus CEO Stephen Rue stated at a press conference, "I sincerely apologize to all customers who could not connect to emergency services when they needed it most," and added, "I express my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the deceased." CEO Rue said that the incident is being thoroughly investigated and that the findings will be released once the investigation is complete.

Australian media reported that the service disruption was likely caused by changes to firewall settings during Optus's network upgrade, which led to a technical error. However, investigations are still underway into why the emergency call system did not automatically reroute to other networks and why the telecommunications failure was not detected more quickly.

Optus, a subsidiary of Singapore's largest telecommunications company Singtel, is Australia's second-largest mobile carrier. In November 2023, the company also experienced a nationwide network outage that left more than 10 million customers without mobile and internet services and disrupted the 000 emergency call service. For that incident, Optus was fined 12 million Australian dollars (approximately 11.1 billion won).