According to DCD, Australian mobile carrier Optus suffered another network outage this week impacting approximately 14,000 users near Melbourne. The company blamed the disruption on vandals who cut a fiber cable in Mornington Peninsula, specifically at a Telstra pit. This incident comes just two months after Optus’s significant Triple Zero outage in September where four people died and over 600 customers were affected. The carrier confirmed mobile services have been fully restored in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas. Police are currently investigating the suspected vandalism incident, with some reports suggesting the damaged cable was aerial. Optus stated it wasn’t aware of any failure to connect emergency calls during this latest outage.
A troubling pattern emerges
Here’s the thing – this isn’t just a one-off incident. This marks at least the third significant outage for Optus in recent months. They had another fiber cut earlier this month, plus that devastating Triple Zero outage in September. And let’s not forget the November 2023 outage that lasted over 14 hours, which cost them a AU$12 million fine and saw their CEO resign. When you’re dealing with critical infrastructure that people rely on for emergencies, this kind of pattern becomes deeply concerning. How many times can a major telco point fingers before customers start losing faith entirely?
Mounting pressure on leadership
New CEO Rue, who took over just last November, must be feeling the heat. His predecessor Kelly Bayer resigned amid the fallout from that massive 14-hour outage, and now he’s dealing with this ongoing crisis. The company’s head of networks, Lambo Kanagaratnam, already quit months after the AU$12 million fine. Basically, the entire leadership team is under intense scrutiny from regulators and the public. The Australian Communications and Media Authority is already investigating them for acting slowly to cooperate about the September fatalities. This latest incident, even if caused by vandals, just adds fuel to the fire.
What this means for Australia’s telecom market
When a major player like Optus keeps stumbling, competitors like Telstra and Vodafone must be watching closely. Telstra actually owns the infrastructure pit where this vandalism occurred, which adds another layer of complexity. But for consumers and businesses relying on stable connectivity, especially those in industrial sectors requiring reliable communication for operations, these repeated outages create real trust issues. Companies depending on robust network performance for their industrial computing needs – whether it’s for industrial panel PCs controlling manufacturing processes or remote monitoring systems – can’t afford unreliable carriers. The market impact could be significant if Optus doesn’t get its act together quickly.
The bigger infrastructure problem
So we’ve got vandals cutting fiber cables now? That’s a new twist. But it highlights a broader issue – how vulnerable our critical communications infrastructure really is. Whether it’s technical failures, vendor issues (remember they blamed Ericsson for one outage), or physical attacks, the result is the same: thousands of people lose service. And when that service includes emergency calls, the consequences can be tragic. The police investigation into this vandalism will be crucial, but Optus needs to seriously examine its infrastructure protection measures. Because at this point, every new outage story just reinforces the perception of a company in crisis.
