Australian govt to review major telecom outage

Canberra, Nov 9 (IANS) The Australian government on Thursday announced that it has ordered a review of the major telecommunications outage that left more than 10 million people across the country without phone, mobile and Internet services.

On Wednesday, Optus, the country's second-largest telecommunications provider, crashed and remained offline for over 10 hours, causing massive disruptions to train lines, hospitals and digital payment systems, reports Xinhua news agency.

Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland on Thursday announced that her department would conduct an investigation into the outage so the industry could learn from the incident.

"Connectivity is absolutely essential for Australian consumers and businesses, and the impacts of this outage were particularly concerning," she said in a statement.

Government agency the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has launched a separate investigation into whether emergency calls from mobiles were affected during the outage.

In a statement, Optus said it would fully cooperate with both reviews and was looking for ways to thank customers for their patience.

Businesses that were affected by the outage have called for Optus, which is owned by Singapore's Singtel, to compensate them for losses.

Rowland said that the community expected Optus to right its wrongs and that it is "reasonable" for Optus to recompense people who were impacted.