Optus to face Senate inquiry, reviews

Optus will face a Senate inquiry over this week's 12-hour network blackout, for which the major telecommunications provider has yet to confirm a definitive cause.

The telco company will face a Senate inquiry alongside another government review amid calls for compensation after 10.2 million people, including 400,000 businesses, were affected during the network outage on Wednesday.

Customers were told to use a family member or neighbour's mobile phone if they needed to call emergency services after Optus-connected landlines were rendered inoperable.

The federal government will undertake a post-incident telecommunications review into the Optus outage of which Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the impacts were particularly concerning.

In a statement, Ms Rowland said while they welcomed that services were restored over the course of the day, it was critical the government conducts a process to identify lessons to be learned.

Industry regulator the Australian Communications and Media Authority has commenced an initial assessment to investigate Optus’s compliance with rules regarding emergency calls.

The public-facing Senate inquiry will be chaired by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, after the motion for the urgent Senate inquiry was passed on Thursday.

Senator Hanson-Young said Optus failed Australia on November 8.

“This inquiry will be vested with the powers of the Senate to compel Optus bosses to appear publicly and provide the answers and the solutions that Australians deserve,” she said in a statement.

“The lives and livelihoods of millions were acutely disrupted on November eighth: phones were dead, the internet down, banking broken, childcare centres closed, schools impacted.

“The public deserves better.”

Senator Hanson-Young said they also wanted those affected to be fairly compensated.

“The question of compensation will be asked and it’s our hope that the chief executive will have the answers that Australians and ten million Optus customers expect and deserve,” she said.

“The inquiry will also look into the role of the Commonwealth government in ensuring Australians have access to essential, reliable telecommunications going forward.

“Optus is a big corporation with too much market power. The people who have been ripped off and let down deserve better.”

Just after 4.30pm on Wednesday Optus released a statement saying most services should be back online.

It has since offered both everyday customers and businesses complementary data.