Massive Telstra outage caused by 'embarrassing human error'
A nationwide Telstra outage Tuesday was caused by "embarrassing human error," according to Kate McKenzie, the company's chief operations officer.
Around midday Tuesday, social media began to light up with customers of Australia's largest telecommunications company, Telstra, complaining that their mobile and Internet services were down across Australia.
Telstra's service status page was a tragic row of red, as 2G, 3G and 4G mobile, as well as ADSL lines, among other services, were interrupted in certain areas nationwide.
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Appearing to blame one person for the outage, McKenzie told 9 News the individual made an error after a node began to malfunction.
"Unfortunately the individual that was managing that issue did not follow the correct procedure, and he reconnected the customers to the malfunctioning node, rather than transferring them to the nine other redundant nodes that he should have transferred people to," she said.
"Services have now been restored with the vast majority of our customers now back online," the company added in an emailed statement. As of 5.30 p.m. AEDT, many suburbs still show outages on Telstra's service status page, however.
In a statement emailed to Mashable Australia Tuesday evening, McKenzie wrote that as an apology, all Telstra mobile customers would get free data this Sunday. "Customers don't need to do anything to receive the free data, it will happen automatically for all of our mobile customers."
The outage was not complete Tuesday, as some customers were able to access mobile data and voice services in certain areas during the outage. A Telstra spokesperson told Mashable Australia customers should still be able to contact emergency services despite the outage.
The lack of service was still a matter of serious concern for some emergency departments. Western Australia's Department of Fire and Emergency Services told the ABC that the SMS and online warning system for people in Myalup fire zone was down thanks to the outage. Landlines were still working, however.
Given the breadth of Telstra's use in Australia, it's expected the outage will have a severe impact on thousands of businesses, as well as people's use of Instagram and Google Maps.
The mood was not all doom and gloom either, with many Aussies suggesting some quick fixes for the company. As Telstra's social media manager, sometimes you just have to laugh through the pain.
UPDATED: Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016
4.20 p.m. AEDT: Updated Telstra statement
9.40 p.m. AEDT: Telstra statement on free data
