Kirsty Needham/Reuters
An Optus shop in Sydney, Australia, on November 8.
Millions of Australians were left without a phone or internet connection on Wednesday after the country’s second-largest telecommunications provider experienced an unexplained nationwide outage.
The outage crippled payment systems and online operations and led to morning peak-hour chaos as train networks and ride share services were down briefly in some cities.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin ruled out a cyber attack but in an interview on ABC Radio did not give a reason for the outage, already in its sixth hour, or say how long it would take for services to be restored.
“It is highly unlikely (that the problem started within software in Optus networks), our systems are actually very stable … This is a very, very rare occurrence,” she said.
“We are working really hard to get it up and running as soon as we possibly can.”
Optus is the Australian unit of telecoms firm Singapore Telecommunications and has more than 10 million customers, about 40% of Australia’s population.
“Without my phone I pretty much can’t do anything. I’m looking for a bank, and when you can’t go onto your phone and Google pretty much you are lost,” said Angela Ican outside the Optus store in Sydney’s central business district
Construction worker Kyle, who did not give his full name, said he wanted answers from Optus.
“I was running late for work and couldn’t let my boss know. When I got on site I couldn’t find my boss – it’s been a big day,” he told Reuters.
An Optus spokesperson told Reuters in a statement that the company “apologizes sincerely to customers.”
Commonwealth Bank, the country’s biggest lender, said in a statement that some customers may encounter difficulties with some of its services.
Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said she had “limited” information about the outage.
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