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More than 14,000 Optus customers in Melbourne’s southeast lost mobile service Wednesday after what the telecommunications company says was a deliberate cut to network infrastructure, prompting a police investigation into suspected copper theft.
The outage affected the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas beginning early Wednesday morning, with Optus initially attributing the disruption to an “aerial fibre break.” However, Optus spokesperson Jane McNamara told ABC Radio Melbourne that technicians discovered evidence of tampering at the site.
“We have photo evidence, very clear, that there has been a cut made,” McNamara said. “We know copper has been removed from the pit and we have contacted Victoria Police.”
While the company’s website indicated the outage affected access to emergency Triple Zero services, McNamara said the telco believes no emergency calls were actually disrupted. Affected customers could only reach emergency services through other mobile networks or via WiFi calling.
The incident marks the latest in a series of Optus outages that have raised concerns about network reliability. In September, a technical failure during a network upgrade impacted Triple Zero calls and has been linked to four deaths. That outage remains the subject of an ongoing Senate inquiry.
Optus CEO Stephen Rue previously told the Senate Standing Committee the September incident resulted from “human error” and outlined new safeguards including 24/7 monitoring of emergency call systems.
Service was expected to be restored by approximately 1 p.m. Wednesday. Victoria Police has not yet released details about the investigation.
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