SYDNEY: Nationwide outages hit a major Australian communications company Wednesday, disrupting phone lines, crashing payment systems and potentially impacting millions of customers.
Australian Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said there was high anxiety across the country as Optus – Australia's second-largest phone and internet provider – scrambled to restore its network.
Dozens of hospitals were unable to receive phone calls and there were reports that some landlines on the Optus network could not ring emergency services.
Optus, which has more than 10 million customers in Australia, said it was "aware of an issue" impacting mobile and internet services.
"Our teams are working to restore services as soon as possible," a company spokesperson said in a statement.
"Optus apologises sincerely to customers."
Train services were briefly disrupted in the city of Melbourne due to a "communications outage" but it was not immediately clear if this was linked to Optus.
Rowland told national broadcaster ABC it appeared to be a "potentially deep network problem and one that is significant."
"I think it's been a very anxious morning for many Australians so far," she said.
Ramsay Health Care said on Facebook that phones were down at its 73 private hospitals and day surgery units, while Sydney's Westmead Private Hospital also said its phone lines were down.
Other companies to report issues included health insurer Bupa, airline Virgin Australia and health and safety watchdog WorkSafe.
A carer said he had not been able to call an ambulance for one of his patients, telling ABC Radio Melbourne: "I had to run out on the street and borrow a phone from someone walking his dog."
The outages come just over a year since more than nine million Optus customers had their personal data stolen during a cyber attack. -- AFP