South Australia police issued a warning after an Optus outage struck the Barossa, affecting mobile voice and data services — and potentially impacting calls to emergency services for several hours on Sunday.
Police say an equipment fault is behind the latest disruption, with Optus technicians fixing the issue about 12pm.
In a statement released on Sunday, SAPOL said the outage was isolated to the small Barossa township of Angaston, about 90km from Adelaide.
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“There is currently a mobile network outage affecting the Angaston area,” they said.
“An equipment fault is impacting mobile voice and data services, which may affect calls to Triple Zero (000). Optus technicians are on site working to resolve the issue.”
Police urged residents to seek help in person if they couldn’t reach emergency services.
“If you are in an emergency and have no mobile coverage, seek immediate assistance from neighbours, local emergency services, Wi‑Fi calling, or community support networks,” police said.
The fresh disruption comes as Optus remains under fire over the catastrophic September 2025 Triple‑0 outage that left two people dead — including a 68‑year‑old Queenstown woman in South Australia.
Leaked audio obtained by 7NEWS revealed confusion inside Optus’ operations centre as emergency calls failed, with operators unable to explain what had gone wrong and emergency services left scrambling.
SA Police Minister Blair Boyer said last year the recordings were “alarming”, adding that South Australians would be shocked by the level of confusion as calls went unanswered.
Optus has since admitted the deadly outage was linked to a firewall update, with up to 600 households across SA, WA and the NT unable to reach Triple‑0.
A federal parliamentary inquiry is now probing the telco’s handling of the disaster, with Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells calling the failure “completely unacceptable”.
