Telstra has blamed an “embarrassing human error” for the widespread network error that saw millions of users cruelly ripped from the bosom of their calls or data for several hours yesterday afternoon.
COO Kate McKenzie has since apologised for inconvenience caused, saying that the error occurred thanks to a faulty node:
“We took that node down, unfortunately the individual that was managing that issue did not follow the correct procedure, and he reconnected the customers to the malfunctioning node, rather than transferring them to the nine other redundant nodes that he should have transferred people to. We apologise right across our customer base. This is an embarrassing human error. It’s not OK. We do not like causing that level of inconvenience to our customers.”
Telstra says that coverage has now been restored across its entire network, and is offering customers unlimited free data all day on Sunday:
We’re giving all our mobile customers free data this Sunday: https://t.co/jVYK8kchWx
— Telstra (@Telstra) February 9, 2016
You can read a statement on the outage here, and breathe a sigh of relief, because the national nightmare is over.
Source: Fairfax / Telstra.
