Optus slammed for phone and internet outage
THERE'S nothing like an internet outage to really ruin your night.
Optus copped a barrage of complaints from across Australia on Tuesday night as its customers' internet connections went down.
Twitter users reported that their 4G mobile and home internet connections went out about 9.30pm Australian eastern standard time.
Reader poll
Do you think telecoms need to do more to prevent widespread internet and phone outages?
This poll ended on 12 July 2017.
Current Results
Yes - this has been happening far too often
5%
I haven't had any issues so I don't see what the fuss is all about
64%
Outages will happen no matter what, there's not much more they can do
30%
This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.
Optus has yet to make any official comment, but it did reply to a complaint on Twitter about 11.30pm confirming the outage.
"There is an outage identified and currently being investigated. I don't have any information as yet for you. Sorry for the inconvenience," a technician named Scott tweeted from the official Optus account.
Hey @Optus, it’s my 2nd night with your cable service and it is down.
— Jamie Skella (@JamieSkella) July 4, 2017
Your 24/7 support line (13 13 44) is engaged, or also down.
💩
Website Internet Outages reported that 2638 Optus customers had complained about their connections being affected, as of 10pm.
News.com.au reader Mandy Mandeep Özçivit said her home and phone internet went down overnight but was now up and running.
"Thank God there was no emergency at home, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do," she wrote on Facebook.
"On top of that their [Optus's] lines were engaged."
When you're not with Optus pic.twitter.com/nKdCzqTGFn
— Dylan Matthews (@DylanMatthews91) July 4, 2017
Chantal Wild said she was annoyed by the outage.
"Had so many problems with them lately. This will definitely be my last contract with them," she wrote.
News.com.au has approached Optus for comment but it is yet to respond.
Optus, Australia's second largest telecommunications company, is facing a new challenger after broadband internet provider TPG announced it would launch its own high-speed mobile phone network next year.
A survey by UBS analysts found that customers of market leader Telstra were "surprisingly reluctant" to switch providers, but those with Optus and Vodafone were more likely to sign up to TPG's cut-price offering.
