Updated ,first published
Tens of thousands of Telstra customers around NSW have been unable to make calls, including to Triple Zero, as an outage causes significant cancellations on regional trains and some businesses face payment issues.
NSW Police said its Triple Zero systems were not affected on Wednesday morning but warned that people may not be able to reach Triple Zero if calling from a Telstra device.
“If you try to call Triple Zero and can’t get through, we recommend using another device, a landline or Wi-Fi calling,” they said.
Telstra said it first identified the issue at 4.30am on Wednesday.
By 1pm, Telstra said it had made good progress on restoring services, with about 90 per cent of calls and data going through the network.
“Our teams are working as quickly as possible to restore remaining services and get all customers back online,” a Telstra spokesperson said in a statement.
“We know how much our customers rely on our network and understand just how much of a disruption this is to your day. For that, we’re so sorry.”
Telstra’s chief financial officer, Michael Ackland, said the issue involved “a number of nodes within our network that keep time” in Melbourne and Sydney data centres that help synchronise network systems.
“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.
“Customers who are having trouble making a call, I encourage you to try again, and depending on how the call is routed through the network, it may connect successfully on another attempt, and people are seeing that occur.”
The cause of the issue is not fully known as yet, but so far, nothing indicated “malicious activity”, he said.
The telco had also been conducting welfare checks when calls to Triple Zero failed, Ackland said.
A NSW Health spokesperson said in a statement that “while the department was not aware of any current impacts to clinical services, we are monitoring the situation and will review any potential impact”.
The spokesperson said emergency, surgical, and outpatient departments continue to operate at public hospitals across state, which “have a range of contingencies in place to manage situations such as this”.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the state’s ambulance service was working with Telstra to mitigate any impacts, with paramedics still able to communicate. “They’re often on dual SIM cards, just to make sure that if one goes down, they’re able to respond in a different way.”
Six buses eventually replaced regional NSW trains on the Hunter and Southern Highlands lines that were cancelled or delayed due to the outage. On the Hunter line between Newcastle and Maitland stations alone, 28 services were cancelled and five were held at the platform.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) manages 9600km of rail track across five states – including regional train services in NSW.
“We are awaiting clearance from ARTC to be able to safely resume NSW TrainLink services on their network,” a Transport for NSW spokesperson said.
”Where reception allows, Transport for NSW is messaging passengers on booked regional NSW TrainLink services via SMS and email, and staff are providing updates onboard.”
Suburban Sydney Trains, Opal payments and Metro services were unaffected. The metropolitan rail network in Sydney operates using the Digital Train Radio System, a wireless technology which does not rely on the Telstra network, the spokesperson said.
Cronulla local Mia Turney runs 10 kilometres with her friends before work three times a week, and expected Wednesday to be a day like any other. But the 25-year-old noticed a problem with her phone as soon as she got up.
“We woke up this morning at 7am to go on our run, and none of us were getting each other’s messages. So we all just rocked up at the cafe we usually meet at and hoped for the best,” she said.
“We just sat and had coffee, and talked about how annoying it was that we didn’t have service.”
Turney, who does not have Wi-Fi at home and only uses mobile data, said the outage was a major inconvenience as she couldn’t check her phone for important messages or anything she had missed overnight.
“It felt like the old times, we just had to stick to the meeting time, get the paper map out.”
However, she hoped it was a one-off incident and wouldn’t consider swapping providers.
Outside the Telstra store in North Sydney, Rick Miller, 62, was looking for answers after his wife had been unable to contact their son, who was in Brisbane to watch the State of Origin decider.
“She doesn’t know what’s happening with him, so she’s up me big time to come down here to see what’s happening,” Miller said.
But Miller was able to use eftpos to buy a coffee at his usual cafe up the street. Others weren’t as lucky as small businesses switched between payment machines and offered Pay ID transfers.
Payments provider Tyro said it was aware that some customers were unable to connect to the 4G network to process transactions.
“While the issue is outside Tyro’s control, we are actively monitoring the situation and are advising affected customers to connect via ethernet or Wi-Fi where available until service is restored,” a Tyro spokesperson said.
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Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
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