Do we like Optus?
Mobile and broadband provider, one of Australia's big three telcos, based in Macquarie Park, Sydney
Our score: 2 out of 10. Not one we'd back. A string of regulator and court actions covers sales abuses, a huge data breach and two emergency-call outages, with deaths linked to the second outage.
Optus is Singtel's Australian arm, with its HQ in Macquarie Park. Singtel's boss said the group had put over A$9.3bn into Optus in five years. Stephen Rue, ex-NBN chief, took over as CEO in November 2024 to rebuild trust after a 2023 nationwide outage. That outage cost his predecessor her job.
Triple Zero is the big one. On 18 September 2025 a failed network upgrade blocked emergency calls for almost 14 hours. 75% of 605 attempted calls failed and the outage was linked to two deaths. A review found its call centre didn't escalate warnings from five callers who said Triple Zero calls were failing.
It's a repeat offender. Optus subsidiaries paid more than $12m in ACMA penalties over the November 2023 outage. In July 2026 ACMA took Optus Mobile to Federal Court, alleging 1,005 breaches over the 2025 one. Maximum exposure is about $251m. It's only an allegation so far, and Optus declined to comment further.
Then there's how it treated customers. After the ACCC sued, Optus admitted unconscionable conduct and a Federal Court judge ordered a $100m penalty. More than 400 people were pressured or misled into phones or contracts they didn't want. The judge said senior management 'abrogated any semblance of responsible corporate behaviour'.
The 2022 data breach is still in court. The OAIC alleges Optus seriously interfered with the privacy of about 9.5 million Australians. Any penalty is for the court to decide. With repeated failures on safety, privacy and sales, we'd steer clear. It scores 2.