breakingIdentity of WA Optus outage victim confirmed as 74-year-old man, senior minister blasts 'appalling' telcoRebecca Le May and Joe SpagnoloThe West AustralianSat, 20 September 2025 10:21AM
The catastrophic Optus outage claimed the life of a 74-year-old WA man, it has been confirmed, while the Federal Communications Minister has blasted the telco for not immediately alerting emergency services.
Annika Wells said on Saturday said she found it 'hard to put into words" how such an incident could "be allowed to happen again", referring to the telco's November 2023 outage that left more than 2000 people unable to make triple-0 calls.
"Australians have every right to be livid that Optus can't get these basics right," she told reporters.
Ms Wells revealed the outage on Thursday lasted more than 10 hours - from just before 1am to 2pm - suggesting Optus should have immediately told emergency services rather than "when it was rectified".
The company's boss Stephen Rue announced the debacle at a snap media briefing late on Friday, saying a technical problem during a network upgrade caused triple-0 emergency calls in WA, SA and the Northern Territory to fail.
He is providing an update to media later on Saturday.
SA Police then revealed an eight-week-old boy from Gawler West, on the outskirts of Adelaide, and a 68-year-old woman from Queenstown, in the city's north-west, were the other two known victims.
And on Saturday morning, WA's Health Infrastructure Minister John Carey confirmed an elderly man had died in WA, saying he learned of the outage "through the media".
"This is absolutely shocking," he said.
"It is unbelievable. And the way that Optus has even just released the news, I think, is appalling ... just it being dumped on a Friday afternoon.
"I want to assure you this: We are taking this seriously.
"I would anticipate - and demand - that there be an investigation.
"The Federal Government will have to set out how that would operate."
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas also launched a scathing attack on Optus over its "reprehensible" and "incompetent" handling of the incident, revealing his office was only informed of the outage during the telco's media briefing.
Mr Carey said the WA man's death would be referred to the coroner for investigation.
The 2023 outage, It was was fined $12 million late last year over its mobile network outage in November 2023 that left more than 10 million Australians without mobile or internet access, and leaving more than 2000 people being unable to make triple-0 calls.
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A WA Police spokesman said the force continued to conduct welfare checks on Optus customers whose emergency call was disrupted.
The carrier must tell police which triple-0 callers it attempted to contact after the outage but was unable to, leaving police to find out what happened with their emergency.
then chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned after overseeing a massive data breach in September 2022 that affected millions of Australians and resulted in the driver's licence, Medicare and passport numbers of 10,000 customers being stolen and leaked online.
The telco faced intense criticism for its slow response.
Asked how a similar situation could happen again, Mr Rue on Friday said: "I share your frustration".
"This should not have happened. We're doing a thorough investigation," he said.
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