A national Optus network outage on Wednesday, November 8, left Central Coast customers without access to their phones, online banking and other services for hours.
The outage effectively put commerce and communications in the deep freeze as many businesses were unable to transact business at all.
Chef Daniel from Fork and Knife Catering and Baker Street Restaurant in Gosford said it was an “absolute commercial calamity”.
“We’re just one of thousands of businesses across the region who rely on Optus to supply our phones and payment network systems,” he said.
“This is going to make a significant dent in our bottom line and frankly it’s not good enough.”
It was during the early hours of Wednesday morning that Optus services went down, with the telecommunication company saying at midday it had yet to identify the root cause.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said she wanted the media to get the company’s message out, saying to ABC radio: “We’re being clear with customers – it would be great if the media could continue to direct people to our website or to the MyOptus app, where it’s very clear what customers need to do.”
In response to questions regarding her customers’ inability to access the internet, she suggested alternative WiFi networks.
Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland held a press conference at 11am to explain telecommunications back-up connectivity in two ways.
“Firstly, in terms of triple-0, and that protocol that goes into place when a mobile network is down or is unavailable for a device – there are mechanisms in place for another network to be camped on,” she said.
“But secondly, in terms of individual arrangements that the carriers might have with Telstra, with Optus, including Telstra and TPG, for example, my office has been in touch with these carriers.”
Residents and businesses have long depended on telecommunications giants for their communication needs.
The outage raises questions about the robustness of these networks and their capacity to handle the ever-increasing demand for data and connectivity.
For the region’s businesses, institutions and individual customers the answers and solutions can’t come soon enough.
A robust national backup system must surely be on the agenda inside Telecommunications Minister Rowland’s offices after this outage.
As we went to press by 2pm some Optus services were slowly coming back on line and the root cause of the issue was subject to ongoing investigations.
David Abrahams