Telstra and Regulator to Face Questions Over Widespread Outage

Thursday, 16 July 2026, 4:47am

The regulator looked at the Telstra outage after a consumer group said some people had trouble calling emergency services.

In short:

Telstra and the regulator are worried about a survey that says up to 10% of customers had trouble making emergency calls.

The regulator asked the consumer group for more information about the survey, and even threatened them with fines or jail time.

What's next?

Telstra and the regulator will answer questions about the outage on Friday.

The regulator is looking into the Telstra outage that stopped people from calling emergency services, after a consumer group said some people had trouble making these calls.

A survey found that one in ten people had trouble calling emergency services from their mobile phones in the past year.

The regulator asked the consumer group for more information about the survey.

The consumer group gave some information, but the regulator wanted more and threatened them with fines or jail time.

The head of the consumer group said she was surprised by the regulator's demands.

She said the group only reported what consumers told them about their experiences.

The regulator and Telstra will face questions about the outage and the survey.

Telstra's CEO and other executives will be asked about the outage that caused problems for businesses and transport systems.

The regulator is also looking into the outage and will be asked questions.

The regulator said it would look into whether Telstra followed the rules for emergency calls.

A survey raised questions about people's trust in the emergency call system.

The survey found that some people had trouble calling emergency services from their mobile phones.

Another survey found similar results.

The head of the consumer group said they only reported what consumers told them.

The person who did the survey said it was unusual for the regulator to ask for so much information.

He said the regulator was very sensitive about the survey's findings.

The survey was discussed in a Senate committee and reported on by the media.