Nine triple-zero calls failed in Dapto yesterday due to the outage in the Illawarra region of NSW.

For 9.5 hours, from 3:00am to 12:20pm, this Sunday, 5,000 Dapto residents were unable to call triple-zero. An Optus spokesperson said there was an issue with a mobile phone power site.

“We have investigated the impact of the issue and have confirmed with police, all callers who attempted to contact emergency services are OK,” an Optus spokesperson said.

Four of the calls were to NSW police to undertake welfare checks. One required an ambulance, and used another phone when the first call didn’t go through.

Financial Minister Katy Gallagher said, despite the disappointment, Australians should still have faith in their ability to call triple-zero.

“I understand it is slightly different to the major outage last week, but yes, it’s still disappointing and, although I understand Optus did make the necessary reports over the weekend, there’s clearly more work to be done,” she told the ABC on Monday.

NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman called Singtel, the parent company of Optus, to assure this won’t happen again.

“We’ve already seen people die, and today we hear of more triple-zero failures in the Illawarra over the weekend, and undoubtedly lives may have been put at risk,” he said.

Tomorrow, Optus Chief Executive Stephen Rue is scheduled to meet with Communications Minister Anika Wells and Singtel’s Chief Executive Yuen Kuan Moon to discuss the recent outage that occurred on September 18, affecting 600 calls and resulting in four deaths.

Photo: NSW Ambulance 636 responding by Helitak430 found HERE and used under Creative Commons License. The image has not been modified.