Optus Communications, Australia's second largest telecom operator, recently suffered a 13-hour communication network failure, resulting inEmergency call service interrupted.£¬Caused four deaths.¡£

According to AFP and Reuters, the breakdown began in the early morning of the 18th and affected South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.Police in South Australia and Western Australia confirmed that an eight-week-old boy, a 68-year-old woman, a 49-year-old man and a 74-year-old man died because they were unable to make emergency calls for rescue.

Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said on the 20th: "It is unacceptable that Optus disappointed Australians at the most critical moment." She stressed that according to the law, telecom enterprises must ensure the smooth flow of emergency calls. At present, the communication regulatory agency has launched an investigation into this.

On the same day, Optous CEO Stephen Ru apologized at the press conference for the incident, promising to fully cooperate with the investigation. He said the failure occurred during a conventional network firewall upgrade, the initial monitoring did not show communication interruption, and the alarm system did not issue a warning. The company stopped upgrading and resumed emergency call services after finding the issue.

This is the second time that Optus has experienced a communication service interruption in recent years. In 2023, the company was fined A $12 million (approximately US $8 million) for a nearly 12-hour nationwide communication disruption. In addition, Optus suffered a large-scale cyber attack in 2022, affecting the data of about 9.5 million users.