Telstra knows where the network issues are coming from, but don’t know the root cause. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Telstra’s Chief Financial Officer Michael Ackland said teams were “urgently” investigating the root cause of the outage that’s caused intermittent issues across the Riverina and throughout Australia.
“We know where the issue is,” he said.
Data centre nodes in Sydney and Melbourne are being restored and there’s no sign at this stage of any “malicious activity”.
Mr Ackland encouraged customers attempting to make calls to “try again”.
“Depending on how the call is routing through the network, it may connect successfully on another attempt,” he advised.
He explained Triple Zero calls followed different settings on the Telstra network but was aware some people had had issues getting through to emergency services.
“We conduct welfare checks when any call to Triple Zero fails, and we have been doing this,” Mr Ackland said.
He apologised for the disruption being experienced across the country, including to EFTPOS systems, but couldn’t specify when the issue would be completely fixed.
“We take these outages very, very seriously,” he said.
“It is a big and complex network, and from time to time issues do occur.
“It could take some time.”
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is keeping an eye on the situation.
“We know outages can have serious impacts, especially for people who rely on telecommunications services for their health and safety, and for small businesses that depend on staying connected,” Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert said.
“Small businesses should keep records of any impacts on their operations. If you’re unable to resolve the issue with Telstra, contact the TIO – we’re free and here to help.”
She advised people impacted by the outage to try and contact Telstra on 13 22 00, through social media channels or online chat.
Those who aren’t happy with Telstra’s response can also contact the TIO.
Telstra customers across the country are experiencing major issues. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
NSW Police issued a statement saying that while Triple Zero systems weren’t affected by the Telstra outage, people may not be able to call from their mobile phones if they’re using Telstra.
“If you try to call Triple Zero and can’t get through, we recommend using another device, a landline or Wi-Fi calling,” it stated.
“Telstra will provide updates on the network outage as their tech teams work through a fix.”
Original Article published by Claire Fenwicke on Region Canberra.
