Optus Turbulence: Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom, faces a leadership shakeup as CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigns amid challenges, including a recent network outage and a major data breach. The parent company, Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), announced Rosmarin’s departure, citing her decision after a network-wide outage left half of Australia without phone or internet for 12 hours. CFO Michael Venter steps in as interim CEO.
Rosmarin’s resignation follows a parliamentary hearing where Optus executives admitted to lacking a contingency plan for such an outage. Appointed in April 2020, she led Optus through a data hack exposing 10 million Australians’ personal data and a recent 12-hour network blackout affecting over 10 million users.
Addressing the challenges, Rosmarin stated, “My resignation is in the best interest of Optus moving forward.” The outage raised concerns about telecommunications infrastructure, with executives acknowledging the lack of foresight and a backup plan.
Also Read: Australia Telecom Turmoil: Nationwide Outage Sparks Chaos
Singtel revealed that a security systems fault, not a routine software upgrade as initially suspected, caused the recent failure. Despite the challenges, Rosmarin’s tenure saw an increase in Optus’ market share and improved financial performance, according to Singtel.
Singtel Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon acknowledged the need for Optus to regain customer trust and confidence in the aftermath of the outage. Peter Kaliaropoulos has also been appointed to the newly created role of chief operating officer, signaling organizational adjustments. The resignation and subsequent changes underscore the telecom industry’s evolving landscape and the imperative to address infrastructure resilience and customer trust.
Our Reader’s Queries
What caused the Optus outage in Australia?
It appears that the reason behind the disruption was the disconnection of multiple routers, which was a precautionary measure taken to prevent an overload of routing updates. Optus has clarified that the outage was not a result of any cyberattack.