Optus takes on 450 staff to address triple zero crisis

Optus chief Stephen Rue has introduced drastic changes across the telco’s call centre and network management divisions in a bid to address the carrier’s triple zero service failures and stave off calls for his resignation.

Rue today told the parliamentary triple zero inquiry that the carrier has introduced “mandatory” escalation procedures that apply to all customer reports of triple zero calling problems which will immediately be reported to its network teams for investigation.

It will also monitor triple zero call failure rates and volumes round the clock and it has started a new daily emergency call reliability testing regime that involves testing its service manually in every state and territory.

Perhaps most germane to the September outage, which has positioned the carrier as the worst villain in the telco sector's ongoing battle to regain public confidence triple zero services, Optus has made a critical change to its network maintenance procedures.

It will now require “explicit confirmation” that its emergency calling services are functioning before and after network changes are completed.

All the changes were offered up to the inquiry committee with a plea.

“There are many very talented and dedicated people at Optus, but all of us need to keep building a culture that seeks to deliver the best customer experience possible, supported by strong process, clear accountabilities and uplifted capability," Rue said.

“This can take time, but remains a key focus for the board and the executive. Understandably, there are questions arising about my position, but I firmly believe that another change of leader at this time is not what Optus needs or what our customers need."

The changes will come at significant expense to Optus, hanging out a 'for hire' sign to bring on 450 new staff.

The carrier is seeking to fill 150 new roles in a “process centre of excellence” in Australia to accelerate the carrier’s ongoing business transformation and overhaul procedures across the business.

It will add a further 300 staff to its Australian call centre operations with a tight focus on triple zero services and vulnerable customers.

The changes also come at an expense at to Optus’ current outsourced network services provider, Nokia.

The carrier was planning to take its capabilities back in-house by May 2027, but now Rue wants Nokia gone sooner.

In a submission to the committee accompanying its oral evidence, Optus sheeted much of the blame for botched network upgrade at its firewall upgrade at its Regency Park exchange in South Australia, which triggered the outage and the fatal chain of events that followed.

Optus said Nokia used an outdated manual when planning the upgrade and incorrectly routed information through its session border gateway in such a way as to stop calls reaching emergency services.

But the telco also revealed in its submission that some of its core network engineer staff were not present with Nokia personnel at the planning meeting for the Regency Park upgrade.

iTnews contacted Nokia through three separate communication channels seeking comment but the company is yet to respond.

Rue repeated his apology to Australian customers that couldn’t reach first responders during the outage.

“Australians call triple zero at the most distressing time in their lives. They absolutely deserve to know their calls will be answered,” he said.

Sympathy was in short supply in the committee.

The outage was linked to at least three fatalities and, led by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the committee immediately zeroed in on the carrier’s decisions immediately after it became aware of the extent of the outage and that people had died as result of it.

Hanson-Young was particularly concerned about the carrier’s decision to prioritise notifying the board of its Singapore-headquartered owner, SingTel, before contacting local authorities and Australia’s federal government.

“When? When did you call the federal government the Minister to tell her that people had died?” Senator Hanson-Young asked.

Rue explained that the carrier was busy undertaking welfare checks and ensuring its information was accurate before, but insisted that he called the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) chair Nerida O'Loughlin during the first critical hours after the tragic discovery.

Hanson-Young was not satisfied with Rue’s response observing:

“So, you find out at quarter past eight in the morning that people had died. It took you until 2.30 [pm] to call the ACMA chair, the regulator, and then took you until four o'clock to speak with the minister or to inform the minister.

“What on earth were you doing between 8am and 2pm or 2.30pm?” the senator asked.

Rue tried to restate his previous answer but was rebuffed.

“You weren't doing the welfare checks. Mr. Rue, you had other people doing that. What were you doing? Why hadn't you called the government and told them what was actually going on?” Hanson-Young persisted.

Rue said he was in “series of meetings” focused on addressing the crisis.

“When you have a situation like this, the job is to make sure that you have all the activities in place, including ensuring that we had the list of the people that we needed to discuss with,” he said.

The hearings continue.