The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is deeply concerned that there has been another Optus outage affecting emergency call services.
Australians must be able to contact emergency services whenever they need help. This is the most fundamental responsibility every telco provider has to the public. When an emergency call fails to connect, the consequences for public health and safety can be devastating.
Following the Triple Zero outage on 18 September 2025, the ACMA has commenced an investigation into Optus' compliance with emergency call service regulations and other related rules.
Under these regulations, telecommunications carriers and carriage service providers (CSPs) must ensure that emergency calls are successfully carried to the emergency call service at all times.
They must also undertake welfare checks on callers who made unsuccessful emergency calls during a significant network outage.
These are the same rules that the ACMA found Optus breached in 2023 during a nation-wide outage. Optus was penalised $12 million by the ACMA for these breaches.
In this new investigation the ACMA will also investigate Optus' obligations to:
- communicate information about the outage to customers and the public, including putting relevant and up-to-date information on its website and using apps, email, SMS, other media or call centres to keep the public informed
- notify the emergency call person (Telstra) as soon as possible about a significant network outage
- communicate information about the outage to other stakeholders including the relevant ministerial portfolio department, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, the National Emergency Management Agency and the ACMA.
These legal obligations are set out in the:
- Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019
- Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024
- Industry Code C536: Emergency Call Service Requirements
The ACMA is seeking detailed information from Optus about the cause of the outage and the actions it took in response. The ACMA expects that Optus will cooperate fully in this investigation.
The ACMA will make its findings public once the investigation is concluded.
