A network breakdown at Optus disconnects millions of Australians

 A network breakdown at Optus disconnects millions of Australians

The cause of the outage and the estimated time of restoration were not disclosed by Optus, the Australian branch of Singapore Telecommunications' telecom business. Over five hours have passed since the networks went down.

Due to an inexplicable statewide outage, Australia's second-largest telecommunications operator left millions of people without access to the phone or internet on Wednesday.

The cause of the outage and the estimated time of restoration were not disclosed by Optus, the Australian branch of Singapore Telecommunications' telecom business. Over five hours have passed since the networks went down.

About 40% of Australians are subscribers of the telecom, with slightly over 10 million of them.

"In order to restore services, our personnel are working very hard. We'll keep you informed as soon as we can. We really apologize to our clients," the business said on messaging app X.

Optus was unable for more comment at that time.

The outage caused pandemonium during the morning rush hour as offices, cafés, and other companies struggled with delays to payment systems and other internet activities, while rail networks and ride-sharing services went down momentarily in certain locations.

A few others have reported experiencing difficulties contacting banks and using financial services.

The largest lender in the nation, Commonwealth Bank, said in a statement that some consumers could have issues with certain of its services. Customers could message CBA's call centers via the CommBank app, the company claimed, but calls could not be sent to them.

Posts on social media claimed that Optus international roaming was also affected, however Reuters was unable to confirm these claims.

Michelle Rowland, the federal minister of communications, said that her knowledge of the disruption was "limited".

While acknowledging that she would be "reluctant to speculate" on a potential a cyberattack, Rowland told ABC Radio that "that could suggest potentially a deep network vulnerability and one that is significant."

The government had asked Optus for further details, including an estimated timeframe for service restoration.

The disruption caused Melbourne's rail networks to go down for around thirty minutes, which caused delays during the morning rush hour, according to media reports.

The city's metro train agency said on X that "major delays to all lines continuing with select alterations and cancellations." A few hospitals reported disruptions to their phone systems.

Last year, Optus had a cyber attack that exposed millions of its customers' personal information, including home addresses, driver's license numbers, and passport numbers.