24 September 2025: CEO, Stephen Rue Update

Thank you all for once again making the trip out here to Macquarie Park today. 

I would like to provide a further update to you all and to provide some further clarity on a few elements of this situation that some of you have been seeking information about.

I have made a commitment to be as open and transparent as we can be.

There are very many moving parts to this - we do not want to release inaccurate information and therefore are doing our very best to ensure we have established the facts before we discuss them.

As you will have seen today, the Optus chairman John Arthur has announced Kerry Schott has been appointed to head the Independent Review into what happened on Thursday September 18.

While our internal investigations are ongoing, this independent review will identify the causes, and canvass the applicable processes, protocols and operations of the incident.

The Review will also examine the management of Triple Zero calls in the Optus network, including the monitoring and operational effectiveness in relation to the technical failure. 

Actions taken by Optus in response to the incident, including adherence to policies, procedures, and legislative requirements, will also be considered by the review. 

Dr Schott has experience at both the executive and board level, in both the public and private sectors, across the infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications sectors.

The Board has committed to releasing the report.

Once again, I would like to apologise to everyone impacted by the triple zero failures.

There are no words that can express how sorry I am about the very sad loss of the lives of four people, who could not reach emergency services in their time of need.

I’d like to give you an update now about the network upgrade and the technical failure that ensued.

The firewall upgrade program that caused the Triple zero call failures on Thursday September 18 was scheduled to be completed over two nights.

Our preliminary investigations have determined that on the first night of the upgrade the steps taken on past successful upgrades of a similar nature were not followed. 

Step 1. In the previous successful upgrades, the process was to divert calls away from the relevant part of the core network to a separate part of the core network.

Step 2. Involved the equipment behind the firewall being upgraded being locked. 

Step 3. Is to then safely upgrade the firewall and the final step is to unlock and re-divert the traffic back.

On this occasion of the upgrade on Sep 18 that caused the triple zero outage, the first step in the process was not followed.

We have successfully completed similar upgrades in the past and it should be reiterated the issue occurred because this time, there was a deviation from established processes.

The Independent Review will investigate the series of events that took place here and determine why all triple zero calls did not direct correctly. 

To be very clear Optus is accountable for the operation of its own network.

I would also like to provide an update about the number of customers that failed to reach emergency services during the technical failure on Thursday.

There have been questions about why triple zero calls failed to transfer or utilise another available network – this is known in the industry as “camping on”.

Our early investigations have determined now that about 25 per cent of the 631 customers that failed to connect did get through. 

Approximately 86 of the 631 eventually successfully reached Triple 0 through the Optus network. 

Approximately 65 reached emergency services by transferring to another carrier such as Telstra or TPG. 

Our early internal investigations have therefore determined there were approximately 480 customers who did not get through to Triple zero.

The independent review, as well as our own ongoing investigations will be examining why this happened and will determine whether there are any patterns that exist to the call failures. 

Inevitably this will form part of ACMA’s investigation for which we will cooperate fully and transparently.

Our technical teams continue to monitor Triple Zero call volumes and failure rates state by state 24 hours, seven days a week. 

And we have implemented a new compulsory escalation process following any customer reports of Triple Zero failure through our customer call centre.

ACCC

Finally, as many of you are aware the Federal Court is due to come back this afternoon with a ruling regarding the penalty proposed by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Optus arising from unconscionable conduct and inappropriate sales practices between August 2019 and July 2023. 

The Federal Court will also be making appropriate orders to this effect.

As the judgement is yet to be delivered, we cannot comment on this matter now, but I will issue a statement later today.

I will now take questions.

ENDS

Media contact: 
Optus Corporate Affairs 
02 9037 8179
media@optus.com.au