Optus is investigating a fresh triple-zero outage, this time in the Dapto region of New South Wales.
The telco said an issue with a mobile phone tower in Dapto had affected calls made between 3am and 12.20pm on Sunday, including those to the triple-zero network.
Nine triple-zero call failures were identified, including a caller who required an ambulance. That person had used another phone to contact emergency services, Optus said.
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Four of the failed calls were referred to NSW police to undertake welfare checks.
Optus said it had confirmed the welfare of all callers who tried to use the triple-zero network during the outage.
“We sincerely apologise to any customers who were impacted,” the company said in a statement.
More than 600 households in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory were impacted by an Optus triple-zero outage two weeks ago.
The company said a routine update to its firewall had caused the problem.
Three people who had called triple zero during the outage had died, including an eight-week-old baby.
Western Australian police later confirmed a fourth death.
The finance minister Katy Gallagher said news of the latest Optus triple-zero outage was “disappointing” but said Australians should still have faith in their ability to call emergency services.
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“I understand it is slightly different to the major outage … last week but, yes, it’s still disappointing and, although I understand Optus did make the necessary reports over the weekend, there’s clearly more work to be done,” she told the ABC on Monday.
The minister said government reviews of telcos were meant to ensure the triple-zero system was “in the best shape possible”.
“It’s not satisfactory at all to have people unable to connect in their time of need,” Gallagher said. “We need to make sure that’s as strong and robust as possible. That’s the work that [federal communications minister, Anika] Wells and the regulators are leading.”
Wells is scheduled to meet with Optus executives on Monday.