Transcript: ABC 7:30 6/10/25

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-06/minister-puts-telcos-on-notice-after-triple-zero/105859686

PAULA GOMPERTZ:  The medal is a prestigious monthly competition.

MICHAEL ATKIN: Retired nurse Paula Gompertz was in the thick of a golf competition in August when she realised something was wrong.

PAULA GOMPERTZ:  It felt as if someone was pressing hard against my chest, my sternum and I knew this was one of the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. 

MICHAEL ATKIN:  She went to her home on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula before trying to call an ambulance.

PAULA GOMPERTZ:  I dialled triple-zero, and I listened and there was nothing. And I went perhaps I’ve dialled it wrong. I’ll do it again. So I dialled triple zero and this time, I was quite specific, and I listened and again, there was nothing. 

I was shocked. Literally, I thought, what do I do?

MICHAEL ATKIN: Paula’s mobile is with Southern Phone, a provider that uses the Optus network.

Her call log shows she attempted two triple-zero calls a minute apart. Desperate for help she messaged her daughter Tori who called an ambulance.

PAULA GOMPERTZ:  They rang me on my mobile. So, my mobile was obviously working.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  The 78-year-old was rushed by ambulance to Frankston Hospital. Paula had a serious heart condition that can be brought on by stress.

PAULA GOMPERTZ:  I have been going through a little bit of stress, mostly, you know, looking after my husband but then my sister has been extremely ill, and she was away in UK, and I couldn’t go.

STEPHEN RUE, OPTUS CEO (19 September):  What has happened is completely unacceptable. We have let you down. 

MICHAEL ATKEN:  The latest crisis for Optus began last month, when a bungled network upgrade resulted in hundreds of calls to triple-zero failing.

The problem lasted 13 hours and is linked to three deaths. 

Telco providers are legally required to make sure those emergency calls connect during an outage under a process known as camping on.

ASSOC. PROF. MARK GREGORY, RMIT UNIVERSITY:  When you call triple-zero and your calls can’t be connected through your network because of a failure, camp on is a process that occurs and that’s where your call is then redirected to another network. 

You would have expected that Optus, through automated monitoring, would have identified that calls weren’t getting through to triple-zero after the first hour and then taken remedial action.

MICHAEL ATKEN:  Then just ten days later, another incident – a mobile tower in New South Wales went down, which caused more emergency calls to fail.

OPTUS has blamed its equipment supplier, Ericcson.

This is the third triple-zero failure in two years for Optus.

But Paula Gompertz and other customers question if the emergency call crisis is more widespread.

PAULA GOMPERTZ:  I couldn’t get through at the beginning of August. It must be an ongoing thing. This is appalling. 

MARK GREGORY:  I believe that the people that have reported not being able to connect to triple-zero are an indicator that there is a broader problem.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  Ugo Tellini is recovering from a crippling back injury he suffered in June.

In the middle of the night he woke up in unbearable pain and couldn’t walk.

UGO TELLINI:  Out of ten, it was eleven. It was really painful, it was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  His wife Jenny began calling triple-zero on her Optus mobile phone. She says she tried 11 times but there’s no record on the phone’s call log.

JENNY TELLINI:  I saw on my phone that I had dialled triple-0 and I could see our address but then the phone just didn’t go anywhere. I started to get a bit panicky.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  Jenny then kept trying on Ugo’s phone. He’s an Amaysim customer – a business owned by Optus, which uses the same network.

His call log shows seven calls were made over 16 minutes.

UGO TELLINI:  Every time you rang, it would come up triple-0 nothing, triple-0 nothing.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  To get to hospital Ugo was forced to shuffle in agony along this corridor so Jenny could drive him there. 

JENNY TELLINI:  Well, I don’t really have that faith anymore. I’m not sure who you can call anymore. I mean, do you call on Uber? I mean I think I’d have more faith in Uber. 

MICHAEL ATKIN:  The industry regulator, the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) has investigated the incident.

Optus told the regulator it had no record of the attempted calls to triple-zero from either phone saying poor reception was the likely reason for calls not going through.

But Ugo Tellini says that doesn’t make sense to him because that same night he successfully called his wife and she called Concord Hospital, before they drove there.

UGO TELLINI:  I was able to make a call. My wife was able to make a call, so it’s just crap. I think it should be a bigger investigation 

MARK GREGORY:  Triple-zero calls can fail for a number of reasons. They can, of course be because of the location of the phone, and the signal strength between the phone and the tower.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  7.30 has also spoken to Sydney man John Chappell who attempted to call triple-zero days before the September 18 outage. 

After witnessing someone being roughed up in the Sydney CBD he tried to alert police but his Amaysim mobile failed to get through eight times. 

LUKE COLEMAN, AUST. TELECOMMUNICATIONS ALLIANCE:  It may have been a network issue. It may have a device issue. Without looking into the specific circumstances, we shouldn’t be guessing as to where the fault was here.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  Luke Coleman represents Australia’s telecommunications providers including Optus.

He says sometimes during a network outage, the system is working properly, and calls are being diverted to other networks, but some calls are failing for other reasons – such as a user hanging up too quickly or a fault with the mobile device. 

LUKE COLEMAN:  When they are scanning for alternative networks, when they can’t reach their primary network, that can take up to 30 seconds, sometimes even longer. So, a user in that time may have believed that their call hasn’t been able to get through and they hang up and try again and that restarts the process.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  Mark Gregory wants the federal government to act and force providers to report all network outages and meet higher standards. 

MARK GREGORY:  Part of the problem is the lack of monitoring and logging of the faults that are occurring in the network. Unless the Government is prepared to take the step to rework the legislation and to put performance standards in the legislation to rework their regulations, then we can’t expect the telcos to do any more than they are now. 

LUKE COLEMAN:  We already have a tough cop on the beat in the form of the ACMA. It has the power to issue fines against telcos for non-compliance with their regulatory obligations when it comes to triple-zero.

MICHAEL ATKIN:  Optus declined our interview request. 

It said when the three customers we’ve interviewed tried to call triple-zero that there was no network fault or outage and it will investigate further.

Optus has introduced 24/7 monitoring of emergency call volumes. 

Paula Gompertz says she no longer trusts the Optus network or her ability to reach triple-0. 

PAULA GOMPERTZ: They’ve got to do something about triple-zero being available, no matter who you’re with, no matter where you are, it’s fundamental.