Telstra confirmed triple-zero calls were affected by Wednesday’s national outage but does not know how many calls may have failed.

Telstra Chief Financial Officer Michael Ackland, who has stepped in for Chief Executive Vicki Brady while she is on leave, could not confirm if any lives were placed at risk by the outage.

He said that a “small number” of triple-zero calls had failed and been flagged in the telco’s system, prompting welfare checks..

Police earlier confirmed that some customers’ ability to make calls to emergency services had been affected.

“A Telstra outage is currently affecting customers nationwide, affecting their ability to make phone calls, including calls to Triple Zero from Telstra services,” a WA police spokesperson said.

“If you have a vulnerable family member, friend, neighbour or co-worker, consider offering support during the service disruption.

“If you are affected and do not have access to an alternative mobile or landline service, police recommend making arrangements with a neighbour, family member, or friend so you can access a working telephone in an emergency.

“Police communications systems are not affected.”

When contacted by The Nightly, NSW ambulance and police emergency services confirmed that their systems were not affected; however, Telstra users attempting to reach triple-zero may not be able to.

In a press conference, Mr Ackland confirmed that thousands of calls had been affected but “it could be in the tens of thousands”.

”We do not yet know the root cause was,” he said.

“We have nothing to indicate malicious activity.”

He said investigations were underway to identify the problem and that the team was “working as quickly as possible”.

At 6.37am (4.37am WA time) on Wednesday, website Downdetector indicated that 7649 users were having issues with Telstra.

It appears that they were first reported around 4am, with reports filed in states right across the country.

Most of the issues reported on Wednesday morning were related to mobile signal and internet.

The issue is also hitting train services in Victoria, Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain confirmed in a statement to The Nightly.

“We are also aware the issue is also affecting Victoria’s V/Line regional train services,” she said.

“We understand Telstra is working on resolving the issue, and arrangements are being made for affected rail passengers.

“Like all telcos, Telstra must notify customers and emergency services of any major outage.”

A very limited coach replacement service is in place with commuters asked to avoid travel until further notice.

Across the border, Transport for NSW said trains are not running between Newcastle and Maitland on the Hunter Line due to “an external telecommunication issue”.

Trains are also not running between Campbelltown in south-west Sydney and Moss Vale/Goulburn.

Payments app Tyro, which reportedly services the EFTPOS terminals of about 80,000 businesses, has been affected by the outage.

“We’re aware of an issue with a national telephone network provider and that some customers may not be able to connect to the 4G network right now to process EFTPOS transactions,” they wrote on their website.

“As an interim solution, until service is restored, please try connecting to your ethernet or WiFi network.

“While this issue is outside Tyro’s control, we’re actively monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they become available.”

When The Nightly spoke with local cafes, they said some customers were unable to make payments because of the outage.

A Telstra spokesperson said 90 per cent of the problem had been solved almost six hours after problems were first reported, but did not confirm when it would be fully rectified.

“We’ve made good progress restoring services, with around 90 per cent of calls and data now flowing successfully across the network,” they said.

“Our teams are working as quickly as possible to restore remaining services and get all customers back online.

“We know how much our customers rely on our network and understand just how much of a disruption this is to your day.

“For that we’re so sorry. We’ll share further updates until all is resolved.”

Earlier, the telco confirmed that mobile calls and data connections were affected but fixed internet services like NBN were not.

The latest outage comes after other telecommunications giants Vodafone and Optus experienced recent gaffes that proved fatal.

In June, Vodafone customers were left with intermittent reception and data issues across Australia.

The telco said customers who could not access the network were able to use emergency triple-zero by connecting to other available mobile networks.

Two deaths have been linked to an outage at Optus in September 2025, which lasted almost 14 hours and affected hundreds of calls in four states and territories.

New rules were handed down by the Australian Communications and Media Authority in March forcing telcos to publish when the outage started and when it was restored in detail as well as the cause.

More to come...

With AP