Digital connectivity has become essential for our livelihoods and wellbeing. But on 8 November 2023, millions of Australians were reminded just how precarious this connectivity can be as the country's second largest network provider, Optus, suffered a 12-hour unplanned nationwide outage. This inquiry examined the network outage and its impact on Australians and the services that they rely on.

This report is comprises five chapters: 

1. The first provides an introduction and background to the inquiry; 
2. Chapter 2 provides background on the network outage, including a timeline of key events, the impact and cause of the crisis, and further details; 
3. Chapter 3 details Optus' response to the outage, including its communications, actions concerning the Emergency Call Service, and offer of compensation for affected customers; 
4. Chapter 4 describes the state of Australia's telecommunications networks, including ongoing risks and measures to improve their resilience; and 
5. Chapter 5 provides the committee's views on these matters and makes a number of recommendations.

Key recommendations

• The Australian Communications Media Authority, in collaboration with industry partners, prioritise as a matter of urgency the development of an enforceable communications standard for carriers that obliges them to communicate to government, emergency services and the public during national outages.
• The committee recommends that the Australian Government work with telecommunications carriers to examine large-scale network roaming and mutual assistance arrangements for major outages.
• The committee recommends that the Australian Government direct the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to expedite the development of a tailored dispute resolution mechanism to ensure appropriate compensation in the event of mass telecommunications outages.