Australia’s Optus restores phone, internet, banking services after outage affects 10 million nationwide
- The mystery glitch crashed electronic payment systems, disrupted phone lines used by ambulances and police, and affected more than 10 million Australians.
- Optus, a subsidiary of Singapore telecommunications company Singtel, said it was unable to pinpoint what had caused the fault
Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company Optus said on Wednesday services had been restored after a network outage that left nearly half of the population without working internet or phones for much of the day.
More than 10 million Australians were cut off from internet and phone services on Wednesday after unexplained outages.
The mystery glitch crashed electronic payment systems, disrupted phone lines used by ambulances and police, and briefly halted rush-hour trains in the country’s largest city, Melbourne.
Optus, a subsidiary of Singapore telecommunications company Singtel, said it was unable to pinpoint what had caused the fault.
“Our team is still pursuing every possible avenue. We had a number of hypotheses and each one so far that we’ve tested and put in place new actions for has not resolved the fundamental issue,” company chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin told national broadcaster ABC.