Telstra Outage: Mobile And Landline Services Down Due To Fire

If your Telstra 4G mobile, fixed-line phone or broadband service is not working at the moment, you’re not alone. A fire at one of Telstra’s exchanges in Sydney is the culprit. Here are the details we know so far.

Telstra not working

Telstra has confirmed that there was a fire at its Chatswood exchange today. The fire has been contained but it has already damaged some of its power infrastructure which is causing loss of service for some customers. Even some NBN services are affected.

A fire at one of our exchanges is impacting some mobile and fixed services. We’re working to resolve ASAP. Thanks for your patience.

— Telstra (@Telstra) February 2, 2017

The problem seems to be affecting customers across Australia, according to complaints on AussieOutages.com.

Jetstar flight delays

The Telstra outage is now being blamed by Jetstar for major flight disruptions:

Some flights disrupted due to @Telstra outage. 9 AU flights delayed ~45mins; check-in for some flights paused; some ports manual check-in.

— Jetstar Airways (@JetstarAirways) February 2, 2017

At the time of writing, nine domestic flights are delayed by at least 45 minutes, and check-ins for subsequent flights are either being paused or completed manually.

Update: The problem is on the way to being resolved. Here’s the latest official statement from Telstra:

We are starting to see restoration of services now.

A fire at the Chatswood Exchange in Sydney this afternoon has been contained, but damage has been caused to some power infrastructure. As a result a number customers are experiencing loss of service. Our technicians are currently completing a full assessment of the impact. We will provide more information as soon as it is available.

Update #2 (3.35pm): We’ve just received another statement from a Telstra spokesperson:

There is a related issue impacting SMS messaging. Customers won’t be receiving SMS messages in the short term while we resolve this issue.

On calls, we are starting to see restoration of services now.

Update #3 (3:55pm): Updated Telstra statement regarding delivery of SMS messages on the mobile network:

“As a result of the Chatswood Exchange fire today its possible some SMS messages have been incorrectly delivered.”

Looks like some SMS messages being sent to Telstra numbers may have been delivered to the wrong numbers.