“I had to find out[by] searching on the internet,[Optus] didn’t send a notice,message or email,” he said.
In inner-city Glebe,Vegan Grocery Store owner Jessica Bailey couldn’t process online orders,and had to use WhatsApp and a neighbouring business’s Wi-Fi to make work calls.
“I just don’t understand how something like this happens. You have this idea that they’re infallible and then something like this happens,and you realise everything’s totally reliant on it.”
Tindall said he had to turn away customers because the eftpos terminals weren’t working,and his phone hadn’t rung all morning.
“Luckily it wasn’t a weekend day because we would have had a real problem. We’d have 30 people in here first thing,and then you’d be losing more sales than you’d want.”
Blacktown business owner Sharif Barez had to rush to the local library to connect to the internet. His wife,Mia Atkinson,also had to relocate to the library to sit an online university exam.
Barez,whose wholesale rugs business Knot n’ Co relies on Optus,said four of his staff also went to Blacktown library to ensure they could get internet access.
“We’ve had to drop everything and move elsewhere. We’ve been here[at the library] since 9am,” he said.
Harcourts Unlimited director Andrew Chrysanthou was considering switching providers as all 30 staff at his real estate business,which covers Blacktown and Woodcroft,relied on Optus.
“The amount of productivity I’ve lost today because of my phone systems is ridiculous,” he said.
Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said the telco would consider compensation for affected businesses once the network was back online.
“We will consider every possibility once services are restored,” she told 2GB’sAfternoons with Deborah Knight about midday.
Optus said some mobile phones had problems making triple zero calls. Customers were advised to find a family member or neighbour with an alternative device to contact emergency services.
Police said there were no major disruptions to the operations of the NSW Police,Rural Fire Service,Fire and Rescue NSW,NSW Ambulance,Transport for NSW or the Department of Education.
However,Optus customers would be unable to contact the NSW State Emergency Service until the outage was fixed. Police said customers could also use Telstra payphones to make emergency calls.
“Mobile phones will connect to triple zero,which people should call for life-threatening situations,provided there is an alternative telecommunications network available,” police said about 4pm.
Service NSW customers were warned of delays after its phone line went down temporarily.
NSW Health said some of its phone and internet services had been affected,while the NSW Poisons Information Centre redirected callers to a temporary hotline.
Ramsay Health Care,which operates St George Private,North Shore Private and Westmead Private hospitals,told patients via Facebook they would need to get in touch via online contact forms.
Uber drivers and users were unable to use the app due to the outage. Cab company 13Cabs also couldn’t receive calls.
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Incoming calls to the Commonwealth Bank,Westpac and ANZ were all impacted by the outage,which also proved a major disruption for remote workers. People flocked to Surry Hills Library in Sydney’s inner city to utilise their Wi-Fi,with some sitting outside the building to use their phones.
One Optus customer,Annie,told ABC Radio she found out about the issues through her cat,who is fed through an automatic Wi-Fi feeder,and missed being fed due to the outage.
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