Optus caught by NSW network outage

Internet access lost.

Optus suffered outages of its cable and 3G networks today that affected internet customers in New South Wales.

An Optus spokesman told iTnews the service interruptions were unrelated.

"Some customers in Sydney's Southern Suburbs experienced an outage of 3G mobile services for an approximate total of two hours this morning and 30 minutes around midday. During that period 2G services including voice were unaffected," the spokesman said.

"In an unrelated incident, a cabling issue at the Belrose exchange in NSW, affected a small portion of Optus' cable broadband customers to experience a disruption to services. Technicians promptly went to the exchange and services were restored by 1:30pm.

"Optus apologises to its customers for any inconvenience."

Earlier, an automated message on the Optus customer support line said the telco was experiencing cable internet difficulties across New South Wales - that its 3G network was also down and that there may also be issues with wireless services.

Co-founder of the Mobile Monday Sydney networking event Shane Williamson posted to Twitter: "Large Optus cable internet outage in NSW. tech support has no idea when it will be fixed."

Other Twitter users reported time out messages for internet access. "I'm still getting timed out messages on my Internet. This message took me like 30 tries to send!" user euphoricdreamer tweeted.

Several sources also reported issues with the Optus network to iTnews directly - both from Sydney's North and North West.

Two Whirlpool forum users reported a loss of wireless data connectivity in the Sydney CBD and at Belmore in the city's west respectively.

Some customers reported that connectivity had returned just after 2pm.