Australian regulator commences court proceedings against Singtel’s Optus
The authority alleges that the telco’s Australian subsidiary breached rules regarding emergency call services on Sep 18, 2025
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[SINGAPORE] The wholly owned subsidiary of national telco Singtel, Optus Mobile, was informed on Thursday (Jul 30) that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has filed proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.
The regulator is alleging that Optus breached several provisions of the Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination 2019 on 1,005 occasions on Sep 18, 2025.
An independent review in September last year found that the outage of triple-zero – the emergency services number in Australia – was caused by a software update.
The incident led to two people being unable to receive emergency services in time.
“The recurrence of a major network outage affecting emergency calls so soon after the November 2023 outage is a significant concern, and one of the reasons the ACMA has decided to take this matter to court,” said ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin on its website.
She added that providing access to emergency call service is “not optional”. Instead, it is a “fundamental” legal obligation and the most important public safety responsibility telco providers have.
In a Singtel bourse filing, Optus noted that it is reviewing the pleadings and will respond in due course.
“As the matter is now before the Australian courts, Optus will not be commenting further on these matters at this time. Optus is unable to determine the quantum of any potential penalties at this stage,” the statement said.
ACMA, too, noted that it will not be making further comments for the same reason.
The latest proceedings follow earlier enforcement actions taken by the ACMA arising from another Optus outage in 2023. Optus’ subsidiaries subsequently paid A$12 million (US$8.3 million) in penalties.
In the triple-zero outage case, the regulator is seeking from the court declarations that Optus Mobile contravened the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 on 1,005 occasions.
It is also seeking an order from the court for Optus Mobile to pay penalties for the above-mentioned contraventions.
The maximum penalty available to the court is A$250,000 per contravention, noted ACMA.
Any penalty would ultimately be a matter for the Federal Court to determine, said Optus.
The court will consider a number of factors and, if so inclined, apply a penalty amount that it determines overall as appropriate based on the events that occurred.
Singtel shares fell 1.1 per cent or S$0.05 at S$4.56 as at 2.35 pm on Thursday.
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