Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has revealed hundreds of triple zero calls failed to connect during last week’s massive network outage, before dodging questions about whether she plans to resign.
The telco’s under-fire boss fronted a Senate inquiry into the failure that left millions of Australians without mobile or broadband coverage for almost 14 hours, facing questions about the cause of the crash, as well as compensation, back-up plans, and her future.
Bayer Rosmarin told the inquiry that, while the emergency service should have worked during the outage, a total of 228 calls were unable to go through last Wednesday.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has grilled Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin on how she discovered the network was down across Australia.
Ms Rosmarin told the committee that she, much like other Optus customers, woke up the morning of the outage and could not contact her team to determine what the problem was.
The Optus CEO was pressed on what sort of backup the company has to ensure its leadership team can still communicate during an outage.
Ms Rosmarin explained some key members had extra sims on hand but acknowledged the system needed to be improved.
“You’re the second largest communications company in the country and you couldn’t communicate,” Ms Hanson-Young said.
“But some of your people have the ability to switch SIMS … most Australians don’t have that. You had insurance for yourselves, but your customer didn’t.
“Do you think that is a problem?”
