Telstra outage halts Australian trains, disrupts payments and emergency calls

A major outage at Australia's largest telecommunications company Telstra on Wednesday halted regional train services, disrupted payments, and affected emergency calls, sparking an investigation by regulators.

What happened

The outage began around 4:30am local time, affecting mobile calls and data for thousands. Source: BBC Victoria's V/Line suspended all regional trains; some services in New South Wales were also disrupted. Source: thenextweb Payment systems went down, including the Tyro app for 80,000 businesses and taxi terminals. Source: BBC Emergency calls were affected; Telstra conducted welfare checks on customers, with six requiring immediate help. Source: BBC

Cause

Telstra ruled out a cyberattack, attributing the fault to a "timing problem" with time-keeping servers in Sydney and Melbourne data centers. Source: thenextweb, theguardian CFO Michael Ackland apologized and said the root cause is still under investigation. Source: theguardian

Response

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the outage "deeply concerning." Source: BBC Communications Minister Anika Wells said "telcos are the least trusted industry in Australia." Source: theguardian The Australian Communications and Media Authority will investigate. Source: BBC This follows past outages at Optus that led to deaths and fines. Source: BBC