Telstra fined $3 million for failing to provide proper response during outage that affected triple-zero service.

Earlier this year, Telstra faced some serious consequences after a technical disruption caused a major issue with their triple zero phone calls. The company was hit with a hefty fine of over $3 million as a result. This disruption caused 127 calls to not be transferred to emergency services, including a call from the family of a Melbourne man who unfortunately suffered a cardiac arrest on March 1st.

In response to this incident, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) launched an investigation into the matter and found that there were a total of 473 breaches of rules during the 90-minute disruption. It was discovered that Telstra had attempted to transfer the calls using backup phone numbers, but unfortunately, some of these numbers were incorrect, resulting in the calls not reaching the necessary emergency services.

Instead, caller information was sent via email and phone calls to the relevant organizations. However, due to the disruption, Telstra was unable to provide the digital location information of the callers, despite successfully transferring the remaining 346 calls. ACMA member and consumer lead Samantha Yorke expressed her disappointment with this, stating that as the emergency call provider, Telstra should have fail-safe systems and processes in place at all times to ensure the safety of the public.

Despite the failures that occurred, the ACMA did acknowledge that Telstra took immediate action to address the issue, including communicating effectively with the public and making necessary changes to their processes. Yorke also noted that these actions helped to restore the community's trust in this critical service. Telstra has since made strides to rectify their processes, such as updating their backup phone number list and appointing an independent consultant to review the incident.

Last month, Telstra's CEO, Vicki Brady, issued a statement after the completion of their internal investigation. She expressed her deep regret and apologized to everyone who was affected by the issue, especially the family of the man who tragically passed away due to the disruption. Brady also acknowledged that the failures were unacceptable and that the company's priority is to ensure that critical services like triple zero are always reliable, even in the face of technical difficulties.

As Brady mentioned, networks and technology platforms can be complex and may experience issues from time to time. However, it is the responsibility of companies like Telstra to tirelessly work towards reducing the risk of these issues and having backup processes in place to ensure that essential services can continue to operate smoothly.

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