Telstra outage blamed on known bug in obsolete server
3 hours ago
- #Telecom Outage
- #Regulatory Scrutiny
- #Network Resilience
- A 20-year-old server failure caused a major Telstra outage, blocking Triple Zero calls and disrupting services, potentially leading to $30 million fines.
- The outage stemmed from a known GPS rollover bug in an obsolete Symmetricom SyncServer S300, which resets every 1024 weeks and could have been replaced for under $30,000.
- Telstra conducted welfare checks on 639 Triple Zero callers affected, with 170 referred to police; SA police confirmed no death was linked to the outage.
- The incident has spurred calls for legislated telco reliability standards and renewed debate on mandating domestic mobile roaming during outages.
- Telstra faces a Senate inquiry, with CEO Vicki Brady admitting the server bug was known but ignored, and the company is offering compensation for financial losses.