Telstra's Big Outage: What Happened and What's Next

Topic: Technology

Saturday, 11 July 2026, at 4:43 am

Telstra's CEO, Vicki Brady, said the company knew about the timing system problem that caused the outage.

In short:

Telstra is being investigated for the national outage that happened this week.

The CEO said the problem with the timing system was well-known in the industry.

An expert says there are gaps in the law that might help Telstra avoid blame.

There is pressure on Telstra and the government to explain how they manage vulnerabilities in the telco's infrastructure.

This comes after reports that Telstra was warned about the problem months before the outage.

The expert reviewing Australia's critical infrastructure law said she found gaps that might have left telcos unprepared.

Telstra is facing a formal investigation into the outage and what the company did to prepare for it.

The laws that govern critical infrastructure are being looked at again.

The CEO of Telstra said the issues with the timing system were well-known in the industry.

Government agencies and experts had warned Telstra about the vulnerability before the outage.

The CEO and the chief financial officer did not say if Telstra had a backup timing system or a plan to deal with this type of failure.

Government agencies and academics warned Telstra that it was vulnerable to the type of error that caused the outage.

Telstra has started a full investigation into the error and will look at how to make its timing system more reliable.

The telco regulator will investigate Telstra's network design as part of its inquiry into the outage.

The Communications Minister said Telstra is covered by critical infrastructure legislation, which means it must follow higher standards.

There are legal gaps that have not been addressed.

The expert who reviewed the critical infrastructure law said the outage supports her concerns that the law does not do enough to prepare telcos for risks.

She said the law should look at the defence of positioning, navigation, and timing as part of its reliance on space technology.

Under new rules, Telstra must identify and plan to prevent and mitigate risks to its network.

The expert said the law in its current form has gaps that might mean Telstra was not required to address the timing issue.

Her review recommended simplifying the critical infrastructure legislation and giving more powers to the home affairs minister.

The law faces gaps in addressing emerging threats, including space-based service dependencies like timing systems.

Telstra did not respond to questions about whether it had failsafe measures to identify issues like the one that caused the outage.

Telstra's timing network is being investigated.

The outage was caused by a time synchronisation issue due to a glitch in the software that reset the GPS timer.

The CEO said the network has a lot of redundancy, which will be part of the investigation.

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