SingTel CEO Flies to Australia Amid Optus Triple-0 Outage Scandal
When a company as large as Optus fails to deliver on its most essential responsibility – connecting Australians to triple-0 – the consequences are not just corporate, but human. With reports linking the outage to multiple deaths, it’s no surprise that SingTel chief executive Yuen Kuan Moon is flying in from Singapore to face the fallout.
The negative side
Let’s be blunt: this should never have happened. A firewall update gone wrong, human error, and an astonishing delay in recognising the scale of the issue left nearly 600 emergency calls unanswered. That’s not a minor slip – that’s a catastrophic failure of process and accountability. Worse still, Optus downplayed the issue in early communications, telling the government the impact was “minimal” when in fact hundreds of Australians were left stranded in moments of crisis.
This is compounded by the fact that Optus had already faced penalties in the past for similar failures. To hear that lessons were supposedly learned, yet history repeated itself, is deeply troubling. For Australians, the trust deficit with Optus is widening.
The positive side
That said, there are glimmers of responsibility being shown. Yuen Kuan Moon’s visit signals that SingTel recognises the seriousness of this incident. The company has apologised, appointed an independent review, and acknowledged that human error – not technical limitations – was at the heart of the issue. This honesty, if followed by meaningful change, could mark the beginning of a rebuilding process.
It’s also important to note that while Optus failed, Australia’s broader telecommunications system provided some fallback, with other carriers like Telstra and TPG absorbing some of the emergency call traffic. This redundancy highlights the value of having multiple providers in our system.
My view
Accountability matters. Flying in a CEO and saying sorry is a start, but it’s not enough. Optus must demonstrate that it can put safety above cost-cutting, and rebuild a culture where procedures aren’t shortcuts but lifelines. Penalties may be necessary, but reform is essential.
Australians need to know that when they dial triple-0, the call will always go through. No excuses, no errors, no second chances. This is a test for Optus, SingTel, and the entire telecom sector – and it’s one they cannot afford to fail again.
