Thousands of Australians have been left without mobile calls, text messages and data after a widespread Telstra outage disrupted services across the country this morning, Wednesday July 8th.
Customers began reporting issues from early this morning, with many unable to make or receive calls, send text messages or access mobile data. Reports suggest the outage has affected some customers nationwide.
The outage has also impacted customers using Telstra’s wholesale network, including Aldi Mobile, Belong and Boost Mobile.
In a statement, Telstra confirmed it was investigating the issue.
“We’re looking into an issue affecting some mobile calls and data connections. If you’re having trouble connecting at first, try again as it may work on a retry. We’re on it and will share an update as soon as it’s fixed. Thanks for bearing with us.”
The disruption has also sparked criticism from the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), which says the incident highlights the need for enforceable reliability standards across Australia’s telecommunications sector.
ACCAN CEO Carol Bennett said, “Australians rely on their phones to call triple zero, to run their businesses, to stay in touch with family, and to access essential services. When that connection disappears without warning or explanation, the impact is immediate and real.
“This is only the latest in a spate of reliability flashpoints across the Australian telco sector. Consumers are right to ask: how much longer before these companies are held to account for their networks, with enforceable reliability requirements rather than voluntary commitments?”
Research previously commissioned by the consumer advocacy group found that 76 per cent of Australians support minimum reliability requirements for mobile networks, while 8 per cent reported they or a family member had been unable to contact triple zero because of a mobile outage in the past year.
While services are being restored, ACCAN is encouraging affected customers to enable Wi-Fi calling where available, allowing calls and text messages to be sent over an internet connection when mobile service is unavailable.
Telstra says it is continuing to investigate the outage and will provide further updates as more information becomes available.
