Police investigate vandalism of telecommunications tower as Optus outage hits NSW Hunter region

Tens of thousands of Optus customers have been impacted by a service outage which authorities suspect may be linked to the vandalism of a telecommunications tower.

NSW Police received a report on Wednesday afternoon that a telecommunications tower on Maitland Road in Hexham in the NSW Hunter region, had been impacted by malicious damage.

An Optus spokesperson said the outage may have impacted customers connecting to triple-0.

They said mobile voice and mobile data services were also impacted.

The outage affected customers in the Port Stephens and Maitland areas.

The ABC understands about 34,000 customers have been impacted.

Optus said services had been restored to all impacted areas and the network would continue to be monitored.

Welfare checks underway

Welfare checks are underway in relation to failed attempts to connect to triple-0.

In a statement, a spokesperson for federal Communications Minister Anika Wells said the minister’s office, the department and ACMA had been notified.

“The situation is being closely monitored.

“Optus must work to rectify the situation as quickly as possible and keep customers informed,” the statement said.

The damage to the tower is believed to have occurred about 9:30am.

Police are urging anyone with information or dashcam footage from the area at the time to contact Crime Stoppers.

Optus urged to ‘speak to Australians’

The federal opposition said a statement provided by Optus on its website lacked critical transparency

Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh said the head of Optus, CEO Stephen Rue, needed to be up-front about the current situation.

“Come and speak to Australians and give them the confidence that they need that your network is going to provide the services that you promise,” she said.

“How are Australians going to have that confidence that they can make those triple-0 calls?”

Ms McIntosh wanted the government to establish an independent website that documents all telecommunication outages.

“I want a thorough investigation into the whole ecosystem, including the infrastructure that is in place, including whether it’s fit for purpose, so these sorts of outages don’t happen,” she said.