Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said on Wednesday an external investigation found that a technical event in its network timing system caused the mobile outage that hit Australia's largest telecoms firm in early July.
The findings add to scrutiny of Australia's telecoms sector after a series of high-profile disruptions, including a 13-hour outage at Singtel-owned Optus last year that affected emergency calling.
Brady said the review confirmed the outage was triggered by incorrect date information that spread through parts of Telstra's mobile network after planned maintenance of its network timing system, in line with the company's initial explanation.
Telstra did not treat network timing as a critical network capability, she said while responding to findings of the external review of the outage conducted under a Senate inquiry.
"This outage should not have happened, and the findings released today help explain why it did," said Brady, who joined Telstra in 2016 from Optus.
While Telstra managed the recovery effectively, the report found "gaps in ownership, visibility and operational support" for the network timing system slowed efforts to identify the problem in the early stages of the outage, Brady said.
Telstra said it accepted the review's findings and would implement its recommendations, while adding that the steps were not expected to affect its full-year 2027 outlook.
(Reporting by Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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