Australian Mobile Network Optus Hit by Large-Scale Outage

By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--Australia's second-largest mobile network, Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus, has been hit by an outage potentially impacting more than 10 million customers.

Optus on Wednesday said engineers were investigating a network fault, but didn't disclose the cause. Customers began reporting problems with their Optus services shortly before dawn on Australia's east coast.

The company had 10.4 million mobile customers at March 31, according to Singtel's most recent annual report. ASX-listed Telstra has more than 22 million mobile subscribers and TPG Telecom about 5.3 million.

The outage is the second major incident at Optus in 14 months. In September 2022, a cyber attack resulted in the exposure of more than 10,000 customers' personal information and led to a class action alleging the company's failure to protect its customers' details.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 07, 2023 17:29 ET (22:29 GMT)

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