Optus Outage Cut Off 480 Emergency Callers, Review Underway

Australian phone company Optus said last week’s network outage left some 480 customers unable to reach emergency services, as the Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.-owned business started an independent review into the fatal failure.

A total of 631 callers initially failed to connect to the Triple Zero emergency line, with about a quarter eventually getting through — either through Optus or after switching to a different firm’s network — Chief Executive Officer Stephen Rue said. Australia’s second-largest phone company is trying to establish why so many callers were left stranded and whether there’s a pattern to the failures, he said.