Calls for Optus CEO to resign after four people die during outage

A South Australian man who desperately tried to call triple zero for an ambulance says he is "absolutely disgusted" a technical error with the Optus network meant he was prevented from seeking help for more than 10 minutes.

Chris Tyndall attempted to ring for an ambulance "three or four times" during a prolonged bout of flu symptoms and said when he called triple zero he was left with no sound whatsoever.

Tyndall, who has an extensive history of heart issues, said the outage was so bad he was questioning if his phone was broken.

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"When I first tried to call 000 there was no sound whatsoever. So I thought it must be my phone," Tyndall told Weekend Today.

"So I used another phone and still no sound. I rang them three or four times before I finally got a ringtone and that would be about ten minutes, which could have made a big difference.

"I'm absolutely disgusted. They have to be held accountable."

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Optus CEO 'must fall on his sword'

Calls have been growing for Optus CEO Stephen Rue to resign over the outage, which blocked calls to Triple Zero in three states for up to 13 hours.

Speaking on Weekend Today, Nationals leader David Littleproud described the outage as "abhorrent behaviour".

"This is a universal service and a universal right for Australians to use in our hour of need," he said.

"The fact that Optus has, in just some blase way, ignored the risks that are there for Australians to be able to ring triple zero is just beyond belief.

"They do need to face penalties for this."

Media personality Gus Worland said he doubted Rue — who was brought in to save Optus' reputation — would survive the latest scandal.

"It does not pass the pub test in any way. These things always come down to the fact that a drama or an issue has to happen before something is done about it," Worland said.

"He's been brought in and now he's got to fall on his sword."

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Rue revealed yesterday the outage was the result of an upgrade to the network's firewall software that inadvertently blocked calls to triple zero from connecting.

The firewall, which protects the network from cyberattacks, did not allow calls to triple zero between 12.30am and 1.30pm on Thursday.

"Normal calls were connecting as they should, and call volumes at a national level did not raise any red flags that there was a technical failure in the system," Rue said.

"And further, there were no alarms to alert us that some emergency calls were not making it through for emergency services."

In a fresh statement on Saturday afternoon, Rue apologised for what he called "late notification" of the outage to politicians.

"I am sorry that the lack of this process led to the late notification of the premiers and chief ministers, and while there was an intention to ensure an earlier awareness of our intention to speak to the media, my team did end up making contact at roughly the same time," he said.

"That said, I reiterate my belief that there should be a formal notification process in these instances, and I have asked my team to look into that urgently.

"This was a complex situation where Optus was keen to be sure of the facts that were emerging and believed to be true, and at the same time we did not wish to delay public notification any further."

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Suggestions early complaints were ignored

Rue said early investigations within the company indicate that at least two Optus customers complained they were unable to contact triple zero, but their complaints went largely ignored.

"I now want to make you aware of the fact that we have had two complaints referred to us by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman," he said.

"Both surround two individual calls to the Optus contact centre, made on Thursday morning where they complained that the Triple Zero service was not working.

"Early review suggests that we have not handled these calls as would be expected.

"I will be able to say more about these in due course but I do want to be transparent that we now know we were informed by two individuals that they could not connect to Triple Zero and this information was not surfaced with the relevant escalation at the time."

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Death toll rises to four

The death toll of the network outage has now risen to four.

Optus first announced the fault led to three deaths, which were found to include an eight-week-old boy from Gawler West in South Australia, a 68-year-old woman from the Adelaide suburb of Queenstown and a 74-year-old man from Willetton, Western Australia.

Yesterday, WA Premier Roger Cook's office and WA Police revealed a 49-year-old from Perth also died after he unsuccessfully tried to contact Triple Zero.

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Optus said it was "saddened to learn of a new fatality in Western Australia" but would "continue to work with WA Police" to investigate the death.

"I am deeply saddened by this further news and extend my heartfelt condolences to the person's family and friends," Optus CEO Stephen Rue said in a statement.

"As stated earlier today I have asked for a full review into the circumstances relating to the failed network upgrade and impact on the Triple Zero network.

"I will also be working with my board and executive team to enable a full independent review of the entire incident including all the impacts and related information. This includes working closely with relevant agencies to establish the full facts."