Optus safety systems, not routine upgrade, caused outage: SingTel
Summary
REUTERS/Kirsty Needham/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights Nov 16 (Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) (STEL.SI), the parent of Australian telecoms provider Optus, said on Thursday a fault in Optus safety mechanisms, and not a routine software upgrade triggered by SingTel, led to the 12-hour long outage last week. More than 10 million Australians were hit by the network blackout at the Singapore Telecommunications-owned (SingTel) telecom firm on Nov.8, frustrating customers and raising wider concerns about its telecommunication infrastructure. SingTel conducts routine software upgrades for its infrastructure through its internet exchange, STiX. Optus earlier in the week said an initial investigation found the companys network was affected by "changes to routing information from an international peering network" after a "routine software upgrade". SingTels statement comes a day before Optus CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces an Australian senate inquiry into the massive outage.