A Catastrophic Failure, Apologies, and Ongoing Investigations

Telstra's triple-0 outage on March 1st was a result of a combination of factors, including a technical fault, an issue with the backup process, and a communication error. The technical fault caused connections to the database to reach their maximum limit, triggering an undetected software fault.

The backup process issue stemmed from incorrect backup phone numbers stored for eight of the 24 state emergency operators. This prevented operators from manually transferring calls to the respective emergency services. The communication error caused delays in some callers receiving callbacks from emergency services operators, primarily in Victoria.

Telstra CEO Vicki Brady acknowledged the severity of the incident, stating that "anything less is not good enough." She emphasized the importance of reliable technology for accessing emergency services and expressed her personal oversight of improvements to prevent future outages.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) launched an investigation into the outage, focusing on Telstra's obligations as the Emergency Call Person. The investigation's findings will be made public upon its conclusion.

On the day of the outage, Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill reported chaos and delays in responding to a cardiac arrest patient in Melbourne. The deceased person's family received a phone call an hour later inquiring about the need for an ambulance. Hill highlighted the challenges faced by crews due to limited information, which was often received after they arrived on scene.