‘Incompetent’: SA premier slams Optus as eight-week-old baby among three who died when triple zero calls failed

The premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, who accused Optus of ‘reprehensible conduct’ over its disclosure of three deaths due to failed triple-zero calls during a network upgrade. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The South Australian premier has said he’s never witnessed “such incompetence” from an Australian communications company after an eight-week-old baby was among three people who died during a botched Optus network upgrade.

Optus chief executive Stephen Rue admitted on Friday that the upgrade, which prevented people from making triple-zero calls the day before, impacted up to 600 households in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.