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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Business
Josh Taylor

Optus outage: company’s offer of free data as compensation criticised as ‘hollow gesture’

Optus Tio Andrew Williams
A sign apologising to customers that reads
Optus’s offer of free data ‘doesn’t nearly make up’ for the outage, the head of Accan has said, as most customers do not use up their allotted data allowance. Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

Optus’s offer of free data to customers and small businesses left without phone or internet services on Wednesday has been labelled inadequate and a “hollow gesture” as the industry ombudsman advises Optus may be on the hook for more compensation.

On Thursday, the telco’s embattled CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, said the company was “deeply sorry” for the outage that took down internet and phone services as well as trains, hospital communications and a range of other services for 14 hours on Wednesday.

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