Singtel-Owned Optus Hit by Another Outage

By Kimberley Kao

Singtel's Australian subsidiary Optus has suffered another network outage, the latest in a series of disruptions that have cast a cloud over the Singapore company.

Optus, one of Australia's largest telecommunications providers, reported a new outage Wednesday caused by a "suspected vandalism incident" in which a fiber cable was cut, the company said in a statement. Optus said it is working with authorities on the investigation.

Mobile services in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas of Victoria were disrupted and have since been restored.

Victoria's 24-hour emergency call line "confirmed they are not aware of any failed emergency calls during the outage," Optus said, noting that there was an overlap in coverage in the affected areas with other networks.

Optus has been at the center of a Senate inquiry in Australia after a network outage in September led to the deaths of four people who couldn't reach emergency services in time.

"There must be an urgent review of Optus licence," said Sarah Hanson-Young, chair of the Senate inquiry in a statement.

Optus contributes about half of Singtel's operating revenue. Singapore's largest telecom operator has said it is increasing spending at Optus to improve the resiliency and reliability of the network.

Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 26, 2025 00:03 ET (05:03 GMT)