‘People could have lost their lives’: Telstra’s apologies fail to quell outage anger
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady is facing intense scrutiny and a parliamentary inquiry following a major national mobile outage caused by a software glitch. The outage disrupted critical services, including emergency triple-zero calls, leading to public and political backlash.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the vulnerability of critical national infrastructure to software failures and the resulting public safety concerns.
Telstra CEO Vicki Brady and CFO Michael Ackland. Photograph: Reuters Telstra CEO Vicki Brady and CFO Michael Ackland. Photograph: Reuters Telstra ‘People could have lost their lives’: Telstra’s apologies fail to quell outage anger Fallout over the telco’s latest national outage continues, with executives called to front a snap meeting of a triple-zero parliamentary inquiry
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Josh Taylor Technology reporter Sat 11 Jul 2026 02.13 EDT Last modified on Sat 11 Jul 2026 06.18 EDT Share Prefer the Guardian on Google It was a missed message on Microsoft Teams and a voicemail from Telstra’s head of operations that brought the chief executive’s European summer holiday with family to a grinding halt.
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