Telstra’s mobile network was hit by a widespread outage early on Wednesday, leaving thousands of customers across every mainland capital unable to make calls or use mobile data, with some reporting their phones had dropped into SOS-only mode.
The telco, which runs Australia’s largest mobile network, confirmed it was “looking into an issue affecting some mobile calls and data connections” but had not identified a cause, given an estimated fix time, or said how many customers were affected.
Eamon Gallagher
The disruption appeared far larger than Telstra’s description of “some” services. Outage-tracking site Downdetector recorded a sharp spike in reports from about 5am AEST, with more than 7000 lodged by early morning and complaints coming from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide, as well as regional centres in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
“If you’re having trouble connecting, try again as it may work on a retry,” a Telstra spokesperson said. “We’re on it and will share an update as soon as it’s fixed. Thanks for sticking with us.”
There are also issues being reported with other providers who rely on Telstra’s wholesale mobile network, including mobile virtual network operators such as Boost Mobile, Belong, Aldi Mobile and Tangerine Telecom.
Tyro, a company that processes eftpos payments, is also investigating “possible system issues”.
“We’re aware of an issue with a national telephone network provider and that some customers may not be able to connect to the 4G network right now to process eftpos transactions,” Tyro said.
The company recommended customers try connecting via ethernet or Wi-Fi until service is restored.
“While this issue is outside Tyro’s control, we’re actively monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they become available,” the company said.
The telco slashed the size of its claimed mobile network coverage by almost a third at the end of June as new rules forcing telcos to measure and report signal strength came into force, standardising methodologies across networks to make it easier for consumers to compare.
Telstra provided about 24.9 million retail mobile services as of June last year, according to the company’s most recent figures. It was fined more than $3 million in 2024 over an earlier outage that stopped some customers reaching Tripe Zero.
The company has been contacted for further comment.
David Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.
Jack Gramenz is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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