Optus loses the sunshine state

update Optus customers in Queensland were stranded in a communications desert today, with a cable break at the Gold Coast wreaking havoc.

"At approximately 8am this morning a fibre-optic cable on the Gold Coast broke, which is affecting services in Queensland," a spokesperson said.

Voice calls to and from the state were been hit by the break at Molendinar, west of Surfer's Paradise, as well as mobile services for Queensland customers. The internet was affected for customers accessing servers outside of Queensland. Some mobile services in northern NSW also went under.

The break was caused by non-Optus contractors installing a pipe at the Gold Coast. Technicians restored the service at midday by repairing the cable.

Unrelated to the cable cut, late last night, Optus's network also experienced a hardware fault in South East Queensland, affecting its back up link.

This is the second set of problems Optus has encountered this week, with customers signing up for the iPhone also experiencing difficulties. Telstra suffered similar problems when the iPhone launched.

Are you an Optus customer who was affected by the problem? Drop us a line at tips@zdnet.com.au.

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hehehehehehhejim paps -- 15/07/08

hehhee

love it

so where's that deadbeat academic who reckoned IT and technology doesnt matter?

i wonder how many businesses have ground to a halt because of this today and have foudn out the hard way it does matter... hehehehhe

dont worry im sure optus will get some "SOFT SKILLS" onto this problem asap...

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Not just OptusAnonymous -- 15/07/08

My mobile is on 3, I have a client on Vodafone, my iinet/ozemail internet is out, most people's mobile and landline phones were out in South-East Queensland

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so much for the tttt claimed telstra monopolyAnonymous -- 15/07/08 (in reply to #320106829)

most peoples mobile and landline phones were out in south-east qld. how so, according to all the hacketpool chest beaters, telstra has a MONOPOLY. your not now saying the geeks are wrong are you?

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"Monopoly Myth"Anonymous -- 15/07/08 (in reply to #320106836)

It proves what we have been saying all along that the so called "monopoly" is myth!!!

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One way to offer lower cost servicesDavid B -- 15/07/08

DO NOT RUN REDUNDANT LINKS BETWEEN CAPITAL CITIES.

Twice in under 6 months Qld residents and businesses have been hit by major outages due to poorly designed and built Optus networks. I am just waiting for the report from them that tries to blame anyone else but themselves.

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Two pointsDavid Tindal -- 15/07/08

(1) The impact to the state in terms of productivity would have been enormous, my guess is that at least 250,000 employees in many companies would have been affected losing at least an hour of productivity each meaning 250,000 hours at an average of $40 per hour. $10,000,000 in lost productivity to companies across Qld.

(2) Why is it Suzanne mentions the iPhone activation issues? Could it be a great way of ending an Optus bad news story with a negative comment about Telstra?

On the day that world youth day started we can be thankful that David & Suzanne are not an item, any kids from them two would truly be evil.

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Telstra's Gentlemen and Gentlewomen.Sydney Lawrence -- 16/07/08 (in reply to #320106877)

You see the difference between the Anti Telstra Circus and the Telstra Supporters Group clearly in the present Optus outage disaster.

No gloating and laughter from Telstra people. Can you imagine the cacophony of abuse and derision Telstra would have endured had their system been so disrupted?

The silence from Government referring to the NBN build is concerning and movement should be expected if the Christmas deadline is to be achieved.

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Just Joking - this actually serious!SJT -- 16/07/08 (in reply to #320106903)

Sydney, Telstra supporters aren't gloating for 2 reasons: -

#1. This is more serious than cheap political point scoring.

#2. In days, weeks, months and years to come, the blind Telstra bashers will turn it around and claim it was all Telstra's fault anyway! As they always do with "absolutely everything negative in telecoms", whilst simultaneously banging their chests, taking the credit for "absolutely anything even vaguely positive"! And the sheep actually believe them - lol!

Even now, if you were to ask James or LW, I'm sure they'll simply tell you that it wasn't Optus' fault at all. It was obviously those evil, greedy monopolist's, Phil, Sol and their groupies (Sydney & SJT)! All trying to regain Telstra's monopoly, at the consumers expense, by sniping Optus cables, with their good ol' Chevy side cutters!

Dam, looks like I inadvertently broke # 1, sorry - lol!

Just joking, this is actually serious and clearly demonstrates how reliant we all are, on reliable telecoms.

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#3, #4, #5 & #6David Tindal -- 16/07/08 (in reply to #320106918)

All of these are me laughing my friggin head off about the fact there is over 1 million idiots in Qld who would trust their services to Optus. I am now worried about flying into Brisbane just in case they outsource anything else to them.

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plenty of optus bashing too...Anonymous -- 06/08/08 (in reply to #320106903)

actually, if you read below

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Lets do a direct comparisonWell done Telstra -- 24/07/08

Telstra had an outage yesterday in Qld as well, a bit ironic that both companies had a cable cut and both in Qld.

Here is the funny part, Telstra had two cables cut.

Now here is the really funny part, they were able to re-route traffic and minimised the impact to only a handful of people for a very short period of time.

Now the really really funny part is that because of how well built the network is the only news about it was on about 4 web sites that I could find, it is as follows:

"Phone and internet services in parts of Ipswich were disrupted this afternoon when a fibre optic cable was accidentally severed by a construction crew at Bellbird Park.

Telstra says it caused only minor outages and all customers have now been reconnected.

Local Councillor Paul Tully says it is a concern, coming just a week after the entire state was hit by a similar Optus outage.

"People have already expressed some concerns at how easy it is for these cables to be cut, even with contractors who have detailed maps of where these cables are," he said.

"Obviously there is always a risk that the cables can be cut and people can lose their services.""

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Comparison continuedAnonymous -- 07/08/08 (in reply to #320107583)

And now for the really funny part.. neither of the Telstra cables cut were primary back haul fibre links; hence there is no comparison!

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minor linksAnonymous -- 07/08/08 (in reply to #320109329)

but still restored much much quicker then optus could restore their major link.

you all can compare different countries networks and pricing & regulatory regime with australia's when it suits you but are quick to use the no comparison argument when it suits you.

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