Hold the phone, committee hits Optus over major outage

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Optus should have offered more comprehensive compensation to customers hit by a massive network outage last year, a Senate report says.

The report released Friday says the telecommunications company’s offer of 200 GB of data in compensation for the 12-hour outage on November 8 was “disingenuous” because few of its customers were likely to make use of the additional data.

Optus had considered a rebate for a day of lost service, but discarded that idea because it would have only amounted to $1 or $2.

The Senate committee, chaired by Sarah-Hanson Young of the Greens, found the dollar figure might represent what Optus charged for its services, but not what the loss of the services represented to its customers.

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, the company’s then chief executive, told the inquiry that 8500 customers and small businesses had reached out to to discuss compensation and it was in talks to pay $430,000 in damages.

It had paid out $36,000, but argued in its Senate submission that there was no precedent, either in Australia or overseas, for telecommunications companies or electricity providers to pay compensation for service outages.

Communications services did not come with a guarantee of continuous service, Optus argued.

Its November outage, left 10 million individuals and businesses unable to make or receive calls, or complete transactions.

A software upgrade was found to be the cause with the company later revealing that 228 triple-zero calls had also failed to go through.

The Senate committee said that current telecommunication guarantees weren’t fit for purpose and didn’t reflect the way telecommunication services had evolved over the past decade.

The committee recommended that the government direct the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to develop a tailored dispute resolution mechanism to ensure compensation was paid in the event of mass outages.

In a statement on Friday, Optus reiterated its apology for the outage and said it had since made important changes to its ability to manage emergency calls during network challenges.

“The Optus customer team has engaged with customers who were impacted during the outage about their specific situations and our specialised team was made available to offer any ongoing support that was appropriate,” Optus said.

The company said it appreciated the Senate committee’s work and would continue to work with the government and regulatory authorities in developing rules around keeping customers informed and updated.

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