A massive nationwide Optus outage has left tens of thousands of Tasmanians without phone or internet service this morning.
It is understood that the outage began around 4am and is affecting not only Optus but also other carriers using the network, including Coles Mobile, Amaysim, Aussie Broadband and several more right across the country.
Optus customers across Tasmania have been left with an ‘SOS Only’ alert on their phone, leaving them unable access the internet or send texts and make calls.
Optus is Australia’s second-largest telecommunications provider behind Telstra and has 10.2 million customers.
An Optus spokesperson said the telco is “working to identify the cause” and apologises for any inconvenience.
“We encourage any customers who need to contact emergency services to use a mobile line to call 000. Optus can confirm that triple zero (000) calls will not work from an Optus landline (fixed line telephone). Mobile calls to 000 will work if another carrier is available,” they said.
RACT is one of many organisations that are “currently unable to take calls on 13 11 11 as a result of the national Optus service outage” and ask those in need of roadside assistance to instead call 13 27 22.
Many businesses are also unable to allow customers to make EFTPOS payments.
Optus says it is working to identify the cause, but at this stage federal authorities do not believe it is the result of a cyber attack.
