Optus' safety systems, not routine upgrade, caused outage: SingTel

FILE PHOTO: View of an Optus shop in Sydney, Australia November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Kirsty Needham/File Photo

(Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), the parent of Australian telecoms provider Optus, said on Thursday a fault in Optus' safety mechanisms, and not a routine software upgrade triggered by SingTel, led to the 12-hour long outage last week.

More than 10 million Australians were hit by the network blackout at the Singapore Telecommunications-owned (SingTel) telecom firm on Nov.8, frustrating customers and raising wider concerns about its telecommunication infrastructure.