Phone and internet blackouts cause chaos in Australia – DW – 11/08/2023

Millions of people and thousands of businesses were left without communications this Wednesday (11/08/2023) across Australia due to disruptions in mobile phone and internet services. provided by Optus, the second largest telecommunications company in the ocean country.

“Our team is working quickly to fix the service. We will provide updates as soon as possible. We thank our customers,” Optus told X (formerly Twitter), saying about the darkness, considered to be the biggest in the history of this company and which makes it still unknown.

The outage of Optus services has affected tens of millions of people, representing more than 38.4% of Australia’s population, as well as some 400,000 businesses and government offices, which since dawn Edge cannot make or receive phone calls, text messages or access the office. internet.

Trains, hospitals and ambulances affected

Similarly, the train network of Melbourne, the second most populous city in Australia, announced this morning in X that its transport services were interrupted due to communication negative, which also affects hospitals, ambulances and national health services.

Optus announced in the afternoon

While Optus did not explain the cause of the outage, Australian Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told reporters in Sydney that it was a failure that occurred “deep in the network and has extensive coverage in mobile, fixed and broadband for Optus customers.

Previously, Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin explained that the company does not believe that the failure in its services is due to a cyber attack, in a statement by public broadcaster ABC.

“It’s unlikely, right now our system is very stable,” said management at Optus, the company that suffered a cyber disaster last year.

jc (efe, Reuters)