Optus Faces Customer Exodus as Millions Weigh Network Switch

A recent survey revealed that nearly half of respondents, precisely 47 percent, felt that Optus poorly managed the prolonged triple zero service disruption.

The poll results also indicated that 30 percent of those surveyed remained neutral regarding Optus’ response to the outage, while 23 percent rated their handling of the situation as either good or very good.

These insights emerged from a survey conducted by Resolve Strategic, which involved 1800 participants.

Optus, which operates from its headquarters in Singapore, ranks as Australia’s second-largest telecommunications provider.

The 13-hour disruption on September 18 led to over 600 emergency calls failing to connect, all due to complications arising from a network upgrade gone awry.

Three deaths have been since been linked to the outage.

Optus had already faced heavy criticism for its handling of and response to the outage, particularly its communication about it.

Optus chief executive Stephen Rue confirmed the outage was caused by human error.

Optus has commissioned an internal review, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority is investigating.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has promised to hold the telco to account. 

Wells has hinted that there may be a wider review into the telco industry and emergency service network.

“Literally, I will be laying down the law”, Wells said in an interview with ABC.

“Australians must be able to rely on our triple zero system, and Telcos must do better to give confidence back to Australians after the catastrophic failure on the part of Optus several weeks ago.”