Telstra outage halts trains, disrupts emergency calls across Australia

techJul 8, 202628322

A major Telstra outage beginning at 04:30 on Wednesday left thousands without mobile coverage, cancelled regional train services and disrupted some emergency calls before services were fully restored about 12 hours later, Telstra CFO Michael Ackland said. Telstra blamed software defects in time-keeping servers at data centres in Sydney and Melbourne and said the problem was not a cyber attack. The company conducted welfare checks on callers who could not reach triple-zero, saying six people required immediate help and about three dozen calls did not connect. Victoria cancelled all regional train services and some regional New South Wales services were disrupted; national freight services were also affected. Payment systems that use the Tyro app were down for about 80,000 businesses. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the outage deeply concerning and Communications Minister Anika Wells said the Australian Communications and Media Authority will investigate, while Wells publicly criticized Barnaby Joyce for making premature claims about the cause. Telstra said backup systems that route emergency calls through other carriers largely worked and defended the overall resilience of its network while pledging to take the outage seriously.

Josh Taylor

@joshtaylor.bsky.social

Me on the Telstra outage today. I have covered so many in my time as a reporter and it's always hunting to figure out which exact single point of failure is responsible this time. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

5145d ago

Richard Chirgwin10

Telstra as a dependency for trains is relatively recent. Railways used to operate their own comms and signalling networks.

rggoldie.bsky.social1

Screaming lack of business continuity planning apparent across the country today.

Quoting this

Tim Lyons9

My new band (grungy sorta Americana sound) is called "Single Point Of Failure"

mick4

Does Telstra have multiple timekeeper servers, because it would have affected the ADF in a big if they don't because dedicated services absolutely rely on them

Sarah Steel2

Finding out single points of failure is likely to be a big part of our lives from here on in yeah

Denise Difficult-Shrivell

@deniseshrivell.bsky.social

The question we should be asking after the Telstra outage yesterday is - how vulnerable is our essential infrastructure after decades of major party politicians putting their interests ahead of ours through lax legislative frameworks? #auspol

4844d ago

Chris Pomfret13

The more private satellites we rely on the more susceptible we become too.

stuart8.bsky.social2

Time to re-nationalise Telstra? Remove the profit motive!

Dale2

Clearly Telstra and the government learnt nothing from the Optus event.

Bruce Porter (Australia)2

Who thought privatising a monopoly was a good idea?

Kerry Jaggers 🇦🇺

@kerryjaggers.bsky.social

🤣 "Across state media this morning in China, Joyce was said to have caused the outage by spilling a bottle of Penfold's Koonunga Hill on a Canberra telecom box around 4am this morning, plunging much of the country into the dark ages." #auspol #satire www.betootaadvocate.com/china-state-...

3245d ago

ABC News Australia

@news.abc.net.au

Time-keeping technology triggers Telstra nationwide outage. Here's what we know

1345d ago

Quoting this

Degenerate artist2

This is what happens when you get rid of the speaking clock. Otherwise they could of just called 1194. At the third stroke it will be,....., beep beep beep.

Cin (they/them)2

A nice change from the usual suspects DNS and BGP

Fusion Party Australia

@fusionparty.org.au

A Telstra outage and V/Line trains stop. All rail safety comms on one private 4G network. No backup. Passengers pay the price. This is what privatised monopoly looks like. #auspol #vicpol theconversation.com/...

1245d ago

Paul Dutton

@pdutts68.bsky.social

She won’t apologise to blocking legitimate emergency calls so maybe a magistrate could help her find some fucken respect! #LibPol #AusPol #TelstraOutage

1744d ago

ladystardust ☮️

@ladystardust64.bsky.social

ABC News is going to spend the next week reporting on "Who Knew What When" regarding the Telstra outage, aren't they? And bring in all the LNP/ON pollies, one by one, to bag the government 🤦‍♀️ #auspol

1845d ago

3wombats6

Maybe they should speak to John Howard and ask why he privatised it

David Marler

@qldaah.bsky.social

Time sync error. The Telstra outage was caused by a failure on the time keeping servers after a software update. Time keeping on any computer network is critical. A lengthy recovery period once everything falls out of sync across different systems. #auspol www.theguardian.com/business/202...

1344d ago

Anthony Zougras

@anthonyzougras.bsky.social

Barnaby Joyce and Angus Taylor have both now suggested that the Telstra outage could have been due to the Chinese ballistic missile test. I, for one, want to know where they found some premium, Cold War-era, anti-communist fearmongering to snort... #auspol

1845d ago

ThatIngrid

@thatingrid.bsky.social

It's bananas that this Telstra outage has caused train cancellations across TWO STATES and yet apparently the CEO says we can trust them 🙃

1145d ago

Wolfcat 🥄

@wolfcat.bsky.social

Heads up at least NSW, not sure about other states. Find a back up for triple zero from Telstra phones. New issue.

NSW Incident Alerts
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·
⚠️ OUTAGE UPDATE - TRIPLE ZERO ADVICE
- STATEWIDE
- Posted: 9:43pm, Wednesday 8 July
While Telstra fixed the issue that caused today's outage, they have identified a secondary issue impacting some calls including Triple Zero.
In these cases, when you call Triple Zero you’ll receive an error message and your phone will try to connect to an alternative mobile network.
If you experience any issues calling Triple Zero, try:
1. Waiting for your phone to connect to an alternative network if one is available - this can take up to 90 seconds
2. Using a different phone to make the call
As part of the back up process, a welfare check will be completed where a failed Triple Zero call is detected.
We will provide updates as they become available.

745d ago

Kent Parkstreet

@kentparkskeet.bsky.social

V Line needs to be completely dismantled and rebuilt. It constantly forgets its purpose is to reliably run trains. It rarely runs reliable trains. #VicPol #AusPol

1244d ago

Felft

@felft.bsky.social

Barnaby links the Telstra outage to the Chinese missile test and the media report it as if it's both credible and not stark raving bonkers! #auspol

845d ago

stimpysimpson.bsky.social1

The effects of Joyce's alcoholism is starting to become more pronounced. Seems he is on the cusp of "wet brain".

Sally D1

Crossed my mind briefly as did damage to an undersea cable

Tony

@tonyshepherd.bsky.social

Agnes Taylor in a presser blaming the ALP for the Telstra outage was so cringeworthy. If only a journalist had asked him how the current government is responsible, when it was the Howard Government that sold off this public asset.

545d ago

Blakandblack

@blakandblack.bsky.social

Telstra says 90% of mobile network back online after outage Telstra have said in a statement ahead of their press conference that about 90% of calls and data have now been restored.

745d ago

3wombats5

Why I always have cash on hand

Andy Paterson4

Just a little interlude as to what the world will be like when the digital systems fail. What's AI think?

ladystardust ☮️2

Reckon the champagne is popping in Optus and Vodafone HQ's. This time it wasn't us! 🕺 🍾🥂 😂

3 sources

abc.net.auHow the Telstra outage impacted these Australians theguardian.comTelstra outage: Telco apologises for major time-keeping issue that hit mobiles, trains and triple-zero calls bbc.co.ukTelstra outage: Trains and emergency calls in Australia affected by telecoms outage

FTC settlement grants John Deere right-to-repair accesstech Telstra outage halts trains, disrupts emergency calls across Australiatech

Telstra outage halts trains, disrupts emergency calls across Australia

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