Optus outage cost parent Singtel $61m
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The news: Optus’ nationwide outage which left millions of Australians without phone or internet access in November 2023 cost its parent company Singtel S$54 million ($61 million).
The numbers: Optus' 12-hour outage last November left 10 million retail and business customers unable to make calls or undertake transactions.
In its business update for the December quarter, Singtel reported $61 million as "provision for network outage in Australia."
The Singapore telco said its 13% drop in quarterly net profit was due to a "higher net exceptional loss" from Optus, as well as Indian telco Airtel.
Singtel's share price fell 1.26% by 2:12pm AEDT on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
The context: Former Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who fronted a Senate inquiry into the outage, resigned less than two weeks after the incident. Chief financial officer Michael Venter was appointed interim chief executive.
While Singtel noted that "trading momentum in Optus was disrupted by a network outage", the group said its subsidiary "has taken steps to increase network resilience" since November's outage.
The source: Singtel media release
