Telecoms outage cuts off millions of Australians (Updated)

A man checks his mobile phone as he walks past an Optus sign in Sydney on May 9, 2002. Nationwide outages hit a major Australian communications company on Nov 8, 2023, disrupting phone lines, crashing payment systems and impacting millions of customers. — AFP

SYDNEY: More than 10 million Australians were cut off from Internet and phone services on Nov 8 after unexplained outages struck one of the country’s largest communications companies.

The mystery glitch crashed electronic payment systems, disrupted phone lines used by ambulances and police, and briefly halted rush-hour trains in the southern city of Melbourne.