Optus outage; as CFO promoted

By Suzanne Tindal, ZDNet.com.au
01 August 2008 04:51 PM
Tags: optus, outage, data, 3g, sydney, melbourne, cfo, jong

Optus customers in Sydney and Melbourne today had problems accessing their 3G wireless broadband services as another outage dogged the carrier.

"We are experiencing some problems with our 3G data services in Sydney and Melbourne," a spokesperson for the company said.

Melbourne's 3G data services went down first, with the spokesperson saying they had been out since earlier today, while Sydneysiders have been data free since 1:30pm this afternoon.

The spokesperson wasn't able to say what had caused the problem, with technicians still investigating. They said Melbourne should have now come back on line, although those accessing the services might still experience some congestion.

There was no timeline mentioned for Sydney's service to be restored.

Optus-owned Virgin Mobile also had an outage starting 2:40pm on Wednesday afternoon, affecting its broadband service. Technicians fixed the problem by midnight, which affected Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.

This is the second outage for Optus, which lost Queensland earlier last month when a cable was cut affecting customers' voice calls, internet and mobile.

Optus CFO Jeann Low Ngiap Jong
(Credit: Optus)

Optus CFO takes on extra work

The 3G data outage came as Optus-parent Singtel announced the resignation of CFO Francis Heng Hang Song, naming Optus CFO Jeann Low Ngiap Jong to step up into the role of group financial head.

Jong will not be leaving her role as Optus' CFO, but will instead handle both jobs from 1 September 2008, when Song's resignation takes effect.

Jong has been at Optus since 1998, in positions such as executive vice president strategic investments and group financial controller.

"We are pleased to appoint Jeann to the Group CFO role. She brings significant financial expertise, broad industry experience and a strong track record to her new appointment," Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong said in a statement.

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Talkback 16 comments

    Down time for Optus. Sydney Lawrence -- 01/08/08

    Glad it wasn't Telstra that had the problem because the cries and insults from the Anti-Telstra Circus would have been horrifying to behold.

    Tsk Anonymous -- 01/08/08 (in reply to #320108289)

    Always Telstra trolling, even on non-Telstra related articles. Don't you ever get bored?

    re Tsk Anonymous -- 02/08/08 (in reply to #320108308)

    Hope you do the same for all of the people that attack Telstra in non-Telstra stories.

    Hypocrite

    Life is good. Sydney Lawrence -- 03/08/08 (in reply to #320108308)

    If I had a life like yours I probably would. LOL!

    Telstra outage ? NanooGeek -- 06/09/08 (in reply to #320108289)

    I'm not rpart of any circus, having held Telstra stock previously. As I don't see how to find whether it has had an outage, this seems the closest relevant thread...

    Does Telstra also host asx.com.au? From the US, tracert gets as far as *.Sydney.telstra.net, then times out.

    Canberra Anonymous -- 01/08/08

    This data outage is/was also in Canberra... my 3G data connection would not work here either.

    also QLD Anonymous -- 01/08/08

    optus is down in brisbane too...am going to use another ocmpany from now on...enough is enough

    @also Anonymous -- 01/08/08 (in reply to #320108301)

    wait till they win the nbn, haha

    @ @also Anonymous -- 03/08/08 (in reply to #320108306)

    They win?

    Just goes to show that everyone knows that the Terria bid is just a Singtel puppet.

    I wonder Anonymous -- 02/08/08

    How much this person earns and will there be any outrage because they are not an Australian?

    Looks like what's good for the goose is not good for the gander.

    @ i wonder Anonymous -- 02/08/08 (in reply to #320108333)

    wtf???

    @ @i wonder Anonymous -- 03/08/08 (in reply to #320108355)

    keep wondering.

    Hiring an overseas citizen in a senior leadership role is not an issue with Optus but it is a huge issue with Telstra.

    Their salary is obviously not an issue as it is not even mentioned but everyone loves to bag the salaries of Telstra executives.

    And while were at it when was the last time Telstra had an outage that took an entire state off the air or 3 states without mobile services? Simple answer ... NEVER...

    ZDNut Shines Through David Tindal -- 02/08/08

    Every other publication that I have read talked about the fact it was down for 8 hours plus, the fact that it affected different services and not just the3G services. You play down the importance and ramifications of this outage as well as confusing people by combining two unrelated stories purely out a desire to shield Optus from attack.

    Just another bias reporter on the books of a bias publication.

    Buy cheap, get cheap Anonymous -- 04/08/08 (in reply to #320108372)

    It had nothing to do with Huawei.

    Huawei Anonymous -- 04/08/08 (in reply to #320108431)

    translation into english = you silly goose you should have bought quality.

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