Optus warned of 'consequences' after network outage leads to 3 deaths

Australia's no. 2 carrier Optus is once again engulfed in a political storm after a catastrophic network outage. This time it is over the deaths of three people caused by the failure of its emergency call system in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The outage—due to an unsuccessful overnight firewall upgrade—lasted for around 13 hours and ended only after Optus was contacted by a member of the public and the police. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly questioned the future of CEO Stephen Rue, while Communications Minister Anika Wells warned the company would "face significant consequences." Wells told a press conference the Singtel-owned company had "perpetuated an enormous failure on the Australian people," and said that "people have a right to be livid about what has happened here."