An act of vandalism has caused the latest significant Optus outage, affecting emergency service calls for more than 14,000 people, the telco has said.
Optus said the issue has been caused by vandals who damaged an aerial fibre line, affecting people in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas, south-east of Melbourne.
All 14,546 services impacted have been restored, according to the Optus website.
The embattled telco had earlier warned that emergency services were affected, telling customers they could only call triple zero if they were within range of another mobile network or had access to wi-fi.
The failure is the fourth time in months that a major Optus outage has impacted access to emergency services.
Optus spokesperson Jane McNamara said the telco believed no triple-zero calls were disrupted.
She said the incident was frustrating, adding that alleged criminals had cut the fibre which provided vital connectivity to customers.
"Our technicians have been on site since early this morning. We do have that photo evidence and it's clear that there had been a cut made," she told ABC Radio.
"We know copper has been removed from the pit and we have contacted police."
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she was seeking urgent advice on the situation.
"There are too many people out in the community experiencing an outage that may be impacting their ability to contact emergency services," she told reporters on Tuesday.
"I can understand why there is a great concern in the community, particularly given some of the more recent incidents that have involved Optus."
A scheduled firewall upgrade in South Australia triggered a communications outage on 18 September linked to the deaths of three Australians. That outage is the subject of a Senate inquiry.
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue blamed human error for that fault.
Normal calls were largely unaffected, but the outage blocked about 600 triple-zero calls from connecting to emergency services.
Inquiry chair Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for an urgent review of Optus' licence.
"They are clearly not capable of providing this essential service and keeping Australians safe," she said.
Opposition communications spokesperson Melissa McIntosh said the outage was unacceptable, regardless of the fault.
"Optus has an obligation to provide triple-zero services to Australians anywhere and at any time. The ongoing triple-zero outages must stop," she said in a statement.
— With additional reporting from the Australian Associated Press
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