Optus’ board, which includes Singtel group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon, expressed confidence CEO Stephen Rue and the management team supported by external expertise could lead reforms to transform the business and restore the trust of the public.

Chair John Arthur stated the board appointed global consultancy Kearney to conduct an investigation, as it moves to strengthen its mobile network to regain customer confidence after recent network woes.

After meeting with Australian Communications Minister Annika Wells, Yuen stated it would take time for Rue to make the required changes at the troubled operator, Reuters reported.

He noted Rue has been at the helm for less than a year, suggesting it takes time to transform a company.

The meeting included Rue and Arthur and followed a second failure of Optus’ emergency call system in ten days.

Wells reiterated in the meeting the emergency call system outage “must never happen again”.

She requested Optus appoint external advisers to independently assess its network plans “to provide confidence” to the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the government the problems would not recur.

The outage occurred just more than a week after a 13-hour disruption to the emergency call system led to multiple deaths.

In November 2023, then Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin stepped down about two weeks after a network outage impacted as many as 10 million customers.