ACMA Sues Optus Over Triple Zero Outage

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has commenced Federal Court proceedings against Optus Mobile Pty Limited over a September 2025 network outage that affected some customers’ ability to connect with Australia’s emergency call service, Triple Zero.

The ACMA alleges that Optus Mobile breached two legal obligations on 1,005 occasions during the 18 September outage. The alleged breaches involved failing to provide access to the emergency call service and failing to ensure emergency calls were carried to the appropriate termination point.

ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said reliable access to Triple Zero was a fundamental public safety responsibility for telecommunications providers. She said the proceedings followed earlier enforcement action linked to Optus’ November 2023 outage, for which Singtel Optus subsidiaries paid more than $12 million in infringement penalties.

The regulator is seeking declarations that Optus Mobile contravened the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999, as well as financial penalties. The court can impose a maximum penalty of $250,000 for each alleged contravention. The ACMA said it would not comment further while the matter is before the court.