Telstra finds secondary outage issue impacting 000

“The issue is impacting a number of nodes within our network that keep time across the mobile network.

“When these nodes are not operating as expected, which is what has occurred, other parts of the network can be affected, resulting in intermittent issues with some mobile calls and data sessions.”

Now, however, 000 calls and some train services remain impacted by issues after the telco identified a secondary problem.

The issue reportedly resulted in an error message and the phone being used attempting to connect to another network.

Telstra advised waiting 90 seconds for the phone to connect to that other network, or using a different device.

During the outage, Telstra noted, over 300 calls to 000 failed to connect, and the telco said it was conducting welfare checks to follow up on those calls. It has reportedly made 333 welfare checks. Six of those said they needed emergency assistance, while 79 were unable to be contacted by Telstra and referred to the police.

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South Australian Senator Kerrynne Liddle said there had been a “tragic death following an apparent failure to connect to Triple Zero during a life-or-death emergency”, according to a report her office received.

“This death of an elderly South Australian represents a devastating failure for their family,” she said.

“Our thoughts are with them.

“No Australian should ever be unable to connect to Triple Zero when their life depends on it.”

Following the report, South Australian police minister Michael Brown slammed Liddle for the claims, with a spokesperson adding that there had been no report of a death.

“People are right to be concerned and angry about what happened yesterday, but to have it blown out of proportion and have wild speculation publicly is downright dangerous,” he said, adding that politicians had a “special obligation to do things honestly and to do things fairly”, and there were “steps to check that that information is correct before we put it out in the public arena”.

“The senator could have called me, called the commissioner, contacted the police, spoken to the media if she wanted to,” he said.

“But instead, she chose to put information out publicly which could be to the detriment of the people of South Australia.”

The South Australia Police spokesperson told media that they had not received a report of a death.

“To date, Telstra has not escalated any welfare check requests to police relative to this outage,” a statement read.

“We remain in regular contact with Telstra and will respond swiftly should any information or requests be received.”

Scammers taking advantage

Ackland warned that scammers were reportedly using the outage as an opportunity to launch scams.

“We have seen some reports of customers receiving calls from fraudsters trying to take advantage of this moment,” he said.

“Our advice to our customers is if you get a call from someone claiming to be from Telstra asking you for details in light of today’s outage, please hang up and call us directly.

“We are deeply sorry for the impact this issue has had on so many today.

“We know how much our customers rely on us to get it right – to do their jobs, run their businesses, stay safe and keep in touch.”

Other areas impacted by the outages included regional train lines nationwide and payment services, limiting operations for around 80,000 businesses across the country.

Shane Murphy, national secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said the outage was “utterly shameful”, adding that it was a result of staff cuts and changes to its workforce.

“This is what happens when you prioritise the bottom line over critical services,” Murphy said.

“You get an unreliable network that lets Australians down time and time again.”

In February this year, Telstra said it would cut up to 650 jobs and confirmed it had axed at least 209 after it entered a joint venture with Accenture.

While Telstra ruled out malicious activity as the cause of the outage, Accenture has reportedly suffered a cyber incident.

Updated - 09/07/2026: Added SA Police Minister comments and corrected reports of the "tragic death."