Optus mobile services wobble, cites network technical issues

Optus has revealed that its network is experiencing “intermittent disruptions” to customers’ mobile call, text and data services.

The telco said the disruption has affected both residential and business customers, citing “network technical issues” as the cause.

“Keeping customers connected is our priority, and Optus’ technical teams are investigating this incident with remediation actions to commence as soon as possible,” an Optus spokesperson said in a statement.

“A further update will be issued as soon as additional details are available.”

Outages website Downdetector said it had up to 1109 reports at 10:34 am Sydney time, with hotspots spread around the major cities across the east coast.

Optus also announced the issues on Twitter and also addressed individual users posting on the site.

We are aware that some Optus customers including residents and businesses may be experiencing intermittent disruptions to their mobile call, text and data services (ref 23548788).

Our technical teams are investigating as a priority and working to restore services asap (1/2).

— Optus (@Optus) February 17, 2021

Telcos using Optus’ network were also affected, releasing advisories of their own:

[Ongoing] Mobile- Unplanned Outage 18/02/2021: NOC have identified a network anomaly impacting Optus fibre services within NSW, VIC and QLD including the infrastructure utilised by the mobile platform with impact to L2 and L3+ services.

This has bee... https://t.co/FdjWCEpjyB

— URL Networks (@urlnetworks) February 17, 2021

[status] Identified: We have identified an issue affecting our Optus backed Mobile Broadband services due to a fibre network issue within Optus' network.

Customers may experience frequent dropouts or intermittent service performance.… https://t.co/dhSCkEdztp

— Real World Tech (@RealWorldOps) February 17, 2021

Updated 12:00pm 18 February 2021: Optus released the following statement on a network update at 11:15am:

"Optus has begun remediation on the identified fault which earlier resulted in some Optus customers including residents and businesses experiencing intermittent disruptions to their mobile call, text and data services," the spokesperson said.

"Customers services are now being restored. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate customers’ patience."

Updated 3:30pm 18 February 2021: Optus confirmed all services were restored.