Three Die in Australia After Optus Emergency Calls Fail

Optus, the Australian unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., is facing multiple investigations and potential penalties after a technical failure that disrupted emergency calls and resulted in at least three deaths.

The outage occurred during a network upgrade Thursday and impacted the Triple Zero calls in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Follow-up checks revealed that three people died in homes that had tried unsuccessfully to make emergency calls, the company said late Friday when it disclosed the event.