Bushfires have caused power outages at Optus mobile sites in New South Wales, the number-two telco reported.
Meanwhile, an unrelated router failure at Optus’s East Burwood exchange in Victoria affected some business customers but the problem has been resolved, an Optus spokesman told Computerworld Australia. “Optus engineers have since removed the faulty router and switched to the spare routing module, which has stabilised services.”
Reporting on the New South Wales bushfires, the Optus spokesman said “there has been limited impact to the Optus services and network infrastructure in fire affected areas. However some mobile sites in New South Wales are affected due to power outages in the areas of Kincumber and Sussex Inlet.”
Optus is working with relevant authorities to access the facilities and is deploying backup generators where it can to restore power, the spokesman said.
“Due to the large number of people around evacuation centres, Optus has modified its network in fire affected areas to prioritise voice calls and SMS,” the spokesman added.
The bushfires could impact Vodafone Hutchison Australia. “While our network has held up there are some fires burning that will likely impact access to infrastructure and power supplies if not contained soon,” a Vodafone spokeswoman told Computerworld Australia.
Apart from the bushfires, yesterday’s heat wave does not appear to have affected Optus or other mobile networks. In late November, high temperatures alone took out service for Vodafone Hutchison Australia customers in Melbourne.
However, Vodafone survived yesterday’s heat wave. “The network held up very well and we monitored very closely throughout the day [and] night,” the Vodafone spokeswoman said.
Telstra, which recently saw fire destroy an exchange in southwest Victoria, hasn’t experienced any problems related to the bushfires so far, but continues to monitor the situation, a Telstra spokesman said.
Follow Adam Bender on Twitter: @WatchAdam
Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU, or take part in the Computerworld conversation on LinkedIn: Computerworld Australia
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.