Telstra reveals nationwide outage could have been prevented for $30,000
Updated . First published at
Telstra has revealed two crucial mistakes led to last week’s massive nationwide outage, while also acknowledging that replacing a $30,000 server could have prevented the tech failure which brought the network to its knees.
During a federal Senate grilling on Friday, the company’s chief executive, Vicki Brady, faced questions over why the 15-year-old server at the centre of the outage was not replaced earlier.
Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady was grilled at a Senate hearing on Friday. AAP
“Would the problem have happened if you had spent the $30,000?” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked the telco boss.
Telstra’s group owner of end-to-end service performance and resilience, Gerard Tracey, confirmed a replacement would have prevented the nationwide outage.
“A newer piece of hardware, operating in the same design that we intended to, [and] the issue wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
The inquiry revealed that the fix also could have saved the company from a massive financial fallout, as up to eight million customers may now be eligible for compensation.
Telstra confirmed they have already received roughly 8000 claims from those affected by the outage, stating it has paid out $100,000 in compensation credits so far, with more expected to follow.
Hanson-Young repeatedly grilled the major telco, declaring that the outage did not appear to be a complex matter but rather “incompetence”.
The hearing came after a submission made by the telco to the parliamentary inquiry revealed that the failure to apply a software update to the server had reset the timing on the device by 1024 weeks – back to 2006.
The Australian Financial Review has reported Telstra was warned by US semiconductor company Microchip Technology of the need to apply a software update to prevent the device’s timing from resetting, months before last Wednesday’s mass outage.
Telstra also outlined in its submission that a previous design change hadn’t been properly documented, which was another contributor to the outage.
“That is clearly unacceptable. If maintenance work can trigger this kind of outage, it suggests our controls were not good enough,” it said.
“We are accountable for that, and our investigation will address why that design change was not documented.”
Telstra said its investigation into the outage will examine why the update was not completed and what preventive measures can be taken in the future so that risks are fixed before they reach customers.
Telstra ignored a warning to urgently apply a software update months before its network was brought to its knees. Getty
The outage caused major problems to voice calls and data across the entire nation, including phone calls to triple zero.
“We now understand the likely technical cause of the outage from our initial investigation,” Telstra said in its submission.
“The team carrying out the maintenance work followed a defined maintenance procedure, however, when the device was re-powered, a GPS card within it did not operate as expected.”
Telstra acknowledged its errors, as chief executive Vicki Brady and other senior managers prepared to face a grilling from senators on Friday.
“We have let our customers and Australians down, and for that, we are deeply sorry,” the telco said in its submission.
In that submission, Telstra revealed it did not alert government authorities for nearly three hours after an issue was detected on the morning of July 8.
Telstra responded to its first media inquiry at 6.33am, before alerting the first government agencies a few minutes later.
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