Optus announced on Dec, 18 2025 that its board has published the independent report led by Dr Kerry Schott examining the Sep, 18 2025 network outage that disrupted Triple Zero services in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales.
The Schott Review found shortcomings in Optus’ processes, accountability, escalation procedures and information protocols, and pointed to cultural issues that slowed decision-making and responses. It sets out 21 recommendations, all of which the board accepted at its meeting on Dec, 16 2025.
Optus has created a dedicated work programme to implement the recommendations and is pursuing broader cultural reforms to reinforce accountability, transparency, risk management and a customer-first mindset.
Chairman John Arthur said the company is “deeply sorry” for the outage and that individual accountabilities will be addressed, ranging from financial penalties to possible terminations.
Chief Executive Officer Stephen Rue added that the findings underscore the need to accelerate Optus’ transformation plan and committed to regular progress updates while working with government, regulators and industry peers to enhance the reliability of Australia’s emergency call services.
