'Meant for wife... blame Telstra': SMS sent to wrong numbers during network outage
Mobile users have claimed they are receiving SMS messages they were not meant to receive following a fire at a Sydney exchange that caused a nationwide outage on Thursday.
Texts to Telstra mobile customers were delivered to wrong recipients after the outages, customers have claimed.
Telstra and Optus customers have reported receiving texts not meant for them.
Telstra confirmed the fire did have an impact on the company’s SMS service, and it paused the processing of messages while it resolved the issue.
An Optus customer claimed she had received messages not intended for her from Telstra numbers.
When she asked Telstra about the issue she was advised that it was possible some SMS messages were going to wrong numbers.
“A fire at the Chatswood Exchange in Sydney damaged power infrastructure which impacted 3G and 4G services nationally and some enterprise customers. Customers lost connectivity and were unable to establish a call connection,” A Telstra spokesman confirmed on Thursday night.
“Customers were also unable to log in to some online services including My Account and 24/7.
“Mobile services were restored from 2.50pm and enterprise services were restored from 3.40pm.
“A related issue which resulted in SMS messages being incorrectly delivered has been resolved.
“All services, including SMS, have been restored and will return progressively.
“The fire was quickly contained and no one was hurt. We are now investigating the cause of the fire.
“We apologise to customers whose services were impacted by the fire. We assure them we worked as quickly as possible to restore services.”
Hundreds of affected customers reported outages to landline, mobile and NBN services on aussieoutages.com
The outage had widespread consequences, with Jetstar flights delayed due to disruptions to check-in ports, and NAB warning its online customers of delays to SMS alerts.
Jetstar Airways confirmed nine Australian flights had been delayed at least 45 minutes and check-in for some flights was paused on Thursday afternoon.
YouI insurance also reported delays processing customer inquiries due to the outages.
A map of the outages shows all Australian states and territories were affected by the fire taking out the exchange point.
The outage is the eighth to hit Telstra in 12 months.
The telco this week retained its ranking as Australia's most valuable brand in a global survey.
