Card Payments Shut Down Nationwide After Telco Suffers Hours-Long Blackout

MPs warn the incident reveals the risk of becoming a cashless society.

A credit card is placed into a card machine for processing payments in La Puente, Calif., on Sept. 11, 2023. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

A nationwide outage suffered by Australia’s second-largest telecommunications provider, Optus, has left thousands of businesses and local government authorities unable to process money payments.

Coffee shops, councils, bowling alleys, and hotels were among those impacted by the nationwide Optus blackout in Australia, which is estimated to have impacted 10 million customers and 40,000 businesses.

Optus mobile, data, and internet services went down for hours on Nov. 8, impacting mobile, NBN services, and EFTPOS (electronic funds transfer at point of sale) machines.

Smartphones were rendered nearly useless as the lack of mobile services meant calls could not be made, and apps could not be accessed unless connected to a local Wi-Fi hotspot (not provided by Optus).

The MidCoast Council in regional New South Wales (NSW) was unable to process payments or take calls in the morning due to the outage.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the national Optus outage. We are currently unable to take calls or process payments,” the Council said.

“The outage is unplanned and Optus is working to restore services.”

In South Australia, the Berri Hotel advised it had no EFTPOS available and customers would need to use cash.

“No EFTPOS available. Currently with the Optus outage our EFTPOS facilities are currently down. We have cash facilities available,” the hotel said on Facebook.

A bowling alley in Orange, NSW was also impacted.

“Optus down everywhere affecting our EFTPOS and card transactions, please bring cash for today or until Optus get sorted out,” the bowling alley said.

“Orange Tenpin Bowl and Dubbo Tenpin Bowl truly apologise for this inconvenience but it truly is out of our control.

“Times like this you realise that a cashless world is not the best thing.”

Advocates Say Cash Really Is King

Cash Welcome, a grassroots campaign working to protect the right to use and access cash, posted on Facebook, “Optus outage stops Australia.”

The group said trains, businesses, and consumers were stranded because of the outage that impacted the Singtel-owned network.

“Only people with notes and coins can buy stuff. Cash—don’t leave home without it,” the group said.

Liberal National Party Senator for Queensland Gerard Rennick pushed for physical bank branches to remain open with access to cash.

“The outage by Optus today just goes to show why banks need to keep branches open so that people can access cash to buy essential goods and services,” he said in a social media post. 

An Optus service message is displayed on a phone outside an Optus store in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 5, 2022. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts echoed this sentiment and warned going cashless had national security implications.

“In the event of future conflict with a hostile nation like China, our telecommunications network would be the first target,” he wrote on Twitter.

“With no cash redundancy to an internet world, a hostile nation could immediately grind our entire commerce and country to a halt.”

The Douglas Shire Council in Queensland also advised that EFPTOS was down at the Killaloe Transfer Station in the morning, due to the Optus Network outage. However, services have now been restored.

EFTPOS machines were also down at the Hans Factory Shop in Queensland, Break Away Cafe in Esperance Western Australia, and Veggie Mama in Mount Lawley, WA due to the outage.

Some businesses said they were still able to take payments because they were not using Optus.

Just Gluten Free in Adelaide said, “Yes, you can use your card in our stores. We don’t use Optus for payment.”

Early on Nov. 8, Optus advised it was aware of an “issue impacting Optus mobile and NBN services” and was working to restore services as quickly as possible.

The Response from Optus and the Minister

The telco said it understood connectivity was important and apologised for any inconvenience caused. Optus later said some services across fixed and mobile were now gradually being restored.

“This may take a few hours for all services to recover, and different services may restore at different sites over that time,” Optus said.

This was the second time CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin had to issue a national apology—earlier this year the telco was hit by a massive data hack that saw the data of 100,000 customers compromised.

“[We are] very, very sorry that this occurred, we know how important it is for all our customers to be connected, and we have been working tirelessly since the outage started to restore services for our customers,” she told ABC radio.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said she had been in touch with Optus and revealed the problem lay in the network.

“What I know at this stage is that it is a significant disruption that I’m sure consumers and businesses around Australia are aware of right now. It is a problem deep in their network. So, a core network problem that is impacting both their fixed line services, including broadband, but also their mobile services,” she said.

“Optus has said that they are doing everything they can at this stage to identify the faults and to rectify it. But I do appreciate that for your listeners and for consumers right around Australia, this is very frustrating at the moment, and there is a strong desire to have some timeframes about when this might be rectified.”

The minister said she was reluctant to speculate on the precise technical details, but said it seemed to be part of the “core network.”

“So, basically, the brains of the network have been impacted here. So that is significant,” she said.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas described the outage as the “single biggest telecommunications outage that we’ve seen in Australia and it has had a broad impact across the nation,” during a press conference.

“Most governments are affected in some way or form and the South Australian government is no exception.”

As a customer of Optus, government departments including SA Health were impacted. However, clinical services were able to continue.