YOU ARE AT:APACTelstra network outages probed with vendor Ericsson

Telstra network outages probed with vendor Ericsson

In the past two months, customers of Australian mobile carrier Telstra have experienced network outages of varying degrees of severity prompting Telstra and primary equipment vendor Ericsson to launch a review process.

Last month, Telstra’s 16.7 million customers lost voice and data service nationwide. According to The Australian, Telstra blamed the network outage on an “embarrassing human error” that took a core node offline.

There was another nationwide outage on March 17, that Telstra attributed to a “signaling storm,” followed on March 21, by a “card failure in a media gateway,” The Australian reported, which cut service to 500,000 prepaid customers.

Following those service disruptions, Telstra COO Kate McKenzie is apparently overseeing a review of network infrastructure; Ericsson confirmed its participation on the “investigation team,” according to The Australian.

A Telstra spokesman confirmed McKenzie sent an email to staff regarding the review and told the media outlet: “We have nothing to add at this stage and we would prefer to call it a review,” not an investigation.

Telstra CEO Andy Penn, on March 28, told The Sydney Morning Herald: “On a personal level, I am deeply disappointed and I want to apologize to our customers. One outage is not good enough … two is absolutely unacceptable. All I can do is apologize, and I’m committing address this and to doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

ABOUT AUTHOR

Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief
Sean Kinney, Editor in Chief
Sean focuses on multiple subject areas including 5G, Open RAN, hybrid cloud, edge computing, and Industry 4.0. He also hosts Arden Media's podcast Will 5G Change the World? Prior to his work at RCR, Sean studied journalism and literature at the University of Mississippi then spent six years based in Key West, Florida, working as a reporter for the Miami Herald Media Company. He currently lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.