Telstra staff unaware of mass outage risk as critical software failure ‘rippled slowly across the network’

Telco outlines reasons for network failure that hit mobiles, trains and retailers ahead of appearance at Senate inquiry

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Telstra has blamed the lack of a software update for a key time-keeping system for outage that caused nationwide chaos last week, with its maintenance teams also unaware of a design change that affected how it would reset.

Ahead of an appearance by its chief executive, Vicki Brady, at a Senate inquiry into the mobile outage on Friday, Telstra provided a written submission that revealed the cause. In it, the company stated it did not lack redundancy in its network – but that such redundancy did not prevent the outage.

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