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 Optus headquarters inMacquarie Park | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1981; 45 years ago (1981) (as AUSSAT) |
| Headquarters | Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia |
Area served | Australia |
Key people | |
| Products | Fixed telephony Mobile telephony Internet access Cable television Leased lines Data transmission |
| Revenue |  A$8.05 billion (2023)[1] |
| A$2.09 billion (2023)[1] | |
| A$286 million (2023)[1] | |
Number of employees | 7,572 (2023)[2] |
| Parent | Singtel[3][4][5] |
| Divisions | Amaysim |
| Website | optus |
Singtel Optus Pty Limited is a major Australiantelecommunications company headquartered inMacquarie Park, Sydney. Optus is the second-largest telecommunications company in Australia, with over 11 million customers as of 2023.[2] Its mobile network covers 98.5% of the Australian population, with plans to cover all of Australia by 2025 through its partnership withSpaceX.[6]
It is awholly owned subsidiary ofSingaporean telecommunications companySingtel.
Optus can trace its beginnings back to the formation of the Government-owned AUSSAT Pty Limited in 1981. In 1982, Aussat selected the Hughes 376 for their initial satellites, with the first, AUSSAT A1, launched in August 1985.[7] AUSSAT satellites were used for both military and civilian satellite communications, and deliveringtelevision services to remoteoutback communities.
With Aussat operating at a loss and with moves toderegulatetelecommunications in Australia, the government decided to sell Aussat, coupled with a telecommunications licence. The licence was sold to Optus Communications – a consortium including:[8]
The new telecommunications company was designed to provide competition to then government owned telecommunications companyTelecom Australia, now known asTelstra.
Optus gained the second general carrier licence in January 1991.[10]
After privatisation, AUSSAT became Optus and its first offering to the general public was to offer long-distance calls at cheaper rates than that of its competitor Telstra. The long-distance calling rates on offer were initially available by consumers dialing1 before the area code and phone number. Following this, a ballot process was conducted by then regulatorAUSTEL, with customers choosing their default long-distance carrier.[11] Customers who made no choice or did not respond to the mailout campaign automatically remained as a Telstra long-distance customer. Customers who remained with Telstra could dial the override code of1456 before the area code and phone number to manually select Optus as the carrier for that single call. Since 1 July 1998, consumers have the choice of preselecting their preferred long-distance carrier or dialling the override code before dialling a telephone number.
The group began by building an interstatefibre optic cable and a series of exchanges between Optus' interstate network and Telstra's local network. It also laid fibre optics into major office buildings and industrial areas, and focused on high bandwidth local, (interstate) long distance, and interstate calls for business. In its early years, Optus was only able to offer local and long-distance calls to residential customers through Telstra's local phone network. Telstra would carry residential to residential calls to Optus' exchanges, and then the calls would be switched to Optus' long-distance fibre optic network.
In 1993 Optus, along with Telstra andVodafone were licensed by the regulator Austel (nowACMA) to provide2GGSM mobile telephony. Optus's mobile service launched in May of that year.[12]
In 2024, Singtel held advanced talks withBrookfield to sell a 20% stake in Optus. Brookfield and Singtel were unable to agree on terms, with Singtel claiming afterwards it remained committed to Optus and the Australian market.[13]
Key Optus products and services include:
Retail services are sold to customers via phone, internet or through retail outlets, especiallyfranchisechains such as Optus World, Network Communications,Strathfield,TeleChoice, andAllphones.
Optus' Customer Solutions and Services (CS&S) organisation is responsible for providing support to Optus Business customers. CS&S works with Optus' subsidiaryAlphawest to supportinformation technology services across Optus' large business, corporate and government[16] client base.
Stephen Rue commenced asChief Executive Officer of Optus in November 2024 following the resignation of Kelly Bayer Rosmarin after the2023 nation-wide outage. Rue was previously the Chief Executive ofNBN Co and is an Executive Director of the Optus Board.[17][18]
Optus Communications offered its first business-focused internet products in 1998 under the OptusNet product family, offering in-house developed dial-up and high-speed services. Optus purchased one of Australia's pioneer ISPs, Microplex, in 1998 to provide consumer dial-up internet services.[19][20] Separate to this, under the Optus Vision brand, acable broadband arm began as a joint venture with U.S. cable and content providerExcite@Home and was known as Optus@Home from its introduction in 1999[21] until it was renamed in 2002.[22]ADSL services were offered from February 2004.[23]ADSL2+ services were provided from December 2005.[24]
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A number of notable wholly owned subsidiaries operate as part of the Singtel Optus group. These are:
Until 20 January 2013, Optus sold mobile services under the brand nameBoost Mobile.[25]
In June 2007, joint venture subsidiaryOPEL Networks was awarded government funding towards the cost of building a regional broadband network. Optus was to be contracted to build the network on behalf of OPEL.[26][27] In April 2008, after a change of the Federal Government from theLiberal Party of Australia coalition to theAustralian Labor Party, the new government terminated the funding agreement and the project was halted, with its functions to be replaced by theNational Broadband Network.
Optus is part of a consortium – now known asTerria – that in July 2006 announced their intention to make a combined bid to build the proposedNational Broadband Network.[28]
Reef Networks was formed in 1999 to provide anoptical fibre link betweenBrisbane andCairns inQueensland. Optus gained exclusive access to this link in 2001, ahead of acquiring the organisation in 2005.[29]
XYZed was established by Optus in 2000 to provide wholesale business-gradeDSL services under an individual brand, but today provides a collection of products only as part of the Optus Wholesale & Satellite division. XYZed established a network ofDSLAMs insideTelstra telephone exchanges, utilisingUnconditioned Local Loop services to reach end users.[30]
Cable & Wireless with 24.5% stakeholder bought outBellSouth's equal 24.5% shareholding in July 1997.[31] The company returned to profitability in 1998 and changed its name to Cable & Wireless Optus.[32] Government relaxation of foreign ownership restrictions paved the way for the company to be floated – with Cable and Wireless increasing its holding to 52.5%)[33][34] – and listed on theAustralian Securities Exchange on 17 November 1998.[35]
During 2001,Singtel launched a takeover bid for Cable and Wireless Optus[36] which was ultimately successful[37] and the company became known as Singtel Optus.
In May 2004, Optus announced a $226.8 million bid for UEComm.[38] The takeover was approved in July[39] and completed in August.[40]
In July 2005, Optus announced it would acquire Alphawest Ltd. for A$25.9 million.[41] The buyout was completed in November 2005 and Alphawest is now an operating division of Optus Business.
On 12 January 2006, Optus acquired the remaining 74.15% of Virgin Mobile Australia for U$22.6 m, giving it 100% ownership.
Since 2005, Optus hasoutsourced somecustomer service functions toConcentrix and 247.ai, with the outsourcer providing 800 staff operatingoffshore in India, supplementing Optus' 3,000-plus onshorecall centre staff.[42] Some functions have also been supplemented in the Philippines.[43] Optus also uses 24/7 Inc. for telephone & chat based offshore support.
In October 2006, Optus announced that it would outsource 100 contracting jobs to anotherSingtel subsidiary, IT companyNCS, in Singapore.[44]
Optus' fully owned network infrastructure consists of the following:[45][46]
OptusNet also providesCable internet. In August 2010, OptusNet released an upgrade of its HFC network to theDOCSIS 3.0 standard,[47] which enabled customers to access a maximum theoretical downstream bandwidth of 100Megabits. OptusNet is also one of the few ISPs in Australia to currently provideADSL2+ via its ownDSLAMs, which it also resells to other ISPs.[48][49]
Mobile network equipment is from Nortel, Nokia and Huawei and antennas are sourced from Andrews, RFS, Argus and Kathrein.[citation needed]
The Optus network operates on the following bandwidth frequencies across Australia:
The2GGSM 900/1800 MHz network was terminated on 3 April 2017 inWestern Australia andNorthern Territory.[53]2G GSM was completely terminated on 1 August 2017 when 2G was disconnected inVictoria,New South Wales,Australian Capital Territory,Queensland,Tasmania andSouth Australia. To remain connected, a device that is capable of running 3G at 900 MHz is now required after 2G was completely disconnected across Australia.
On 28 October 2024, the 3G UMTS service provided by Optus was shut down. This affects other providers reliant on their network, includingAmaysim andVirgin Mobile Australia. To remain connected, customers are required to have a phone capable of connecting to their 4G LTE or 5G NR services. All phones incapable of using VoLTE will be prevented from accessing the Optus network due to legal requirements for all devices to be able to access the Triple Zero emergency calling system.[54]
Part-owned network infrastructure includes:
Between 1994 and 2005 Optus had the naming rights to the Carlton football clubs original home ground in Princes Park. It was called Optus Oval until the ground was retired by the AFL in 2005.
Optus was the main sponsor of the1997 ARL season.[citation needed]
In 2016, Optus signed a 10-year partnership agreement with theAustralian Olympic Committee to be the official partner of the Australian Olympic Team and the Australian Paralympic Team until 2026.[57]
In 2017, Optus won naming rights toPerth Stadium where it would be known as Optus Stadium. Optus and theGovernment of Western Australia agreed to a 10-year naming right worth approximately A$50 million.[58]
Optus also has a long-term partnership with theAdelaide Crows in theAFL. Optus has been a partner of theCollingwood Magpies in theAFL Women's since 2018.[59]
Optus is the current major sponsor for the No. 1Walkinshaw TWG RacingToyota Supra driven byChaz Mostert[60][61]
| 2014 | Canstar Blue Awards: Most Satisfied Customers 2014 Award in the small business mobile phone service providers category. |
| 2015 | Canstar Blue Awards: Most Satisfied Customers 2015 Award in the small business mobile phone service providers category. |
| 2016 | Global Carrier Award: Best Asian Wholesale Carrier Award |
| 2017 | Arcstar Carrier Forum: Operations and Maintenance Award Global Telcom Awards: AI Initiative of the year |
| 2018 | World Communication Awards: Best Wholesale Operator Asia Communications Awards: Wholesale Operator of the Year Annual MVNOs World Congress: Most Innovative Wholesaler & People's Choice |
At 8:00am on 16 July 2008 a wide-ranging outage affected customers inQueensland and NorthernNSW. Customers of Optus,iiNet,3 Mobile andVirgin were reported as down. Examples of services affected includedBrisbane Airport, public transport, hospitals, landlines,ATM's andEFTPOS. The fault occurred as a result of afibre optic cable atMolendinar being severed by earthworks, and the inland fibre path viaStanthorpe had failed the night prior. Partial restoration of services occurred at 12:30pm.[62]The same cited article also mentions brief detail of 1,800ADSL andDSL services experiencing an outage in January of the same year due to the carrier'sMoorooka exchange.
In 2014 Telstra successfully argued anOptus TV campaign was misleading about its coverage.[63]
During the2018 FIFA World Cup, itsOptus Sport streaming service suffered widespread outages that left subscribers unable to view matches; chief executive Allen Lew apologised, temporary simulcasts were arranged withSBS, and subscriptions were made free with refunds offered to affected customers.[64]
In April 2018, Optus removed and investigated aNeutral Bay retail job ad that improperly expressed a preference for "Anglo-Saxon" applicants.[65]
In February 2019, theFederal Court imposed a $10 million penalty after Optus admitted misleading customers charged via its Direct Carrier Billing service for unwanted digital content, with hundreds of thousands refunded.[66]
In September 2025, Optus paid a $100 million penalty in response to a court order that it had engaged in "unconscionable conduct" by recommending products that customers could not afford, did not want or could not use. Such customers were unemployed, homeless, had a disability or did not speak English as their first language. First Nations people from regional areas were also targeted.[67]
Around 22 September 2022, Optus systems sustained a significantcyberattack that resulted in a major data breach of both current and former customers' personal information, including customers' names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses, with a smaller subset of customers having their street addresses, driving licence details and passport numbers leaked. Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin urged customers to exercise "heightened awareness" regarding transactions with their Optus and other accounts. Rosmarin emphasised that passwords were not compromised.[68][69] The CEO said that the "worst-case scenario" regarding the number of customers whose data had been leaked was 9.8 million customers, but believes the actual number to be far lower.[70]
On 24 September 2022, Australian news outletsThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald reported that Optus was investigating the authenticity of a ransom demand of US$1 million made on a hacking forum. The demand gave Optus one week to pay the ransom in cryptocurrency else the data will be sold for US$300,000 to whoever else wants it.[71]
On 6 October, theAustralian Federal Police announced the arrest of a 19-year-old man who had allegedly threatened 93 Optus customers by saying that he would use their information leaked in the attack to commit financial crimes, unless they paid AUD $2,000.[72][73]
In response to the cyberattack, theAustralian federal government announced an emergency regulation on 6 October, in the form of a 12-month amendment to the Telecommunications Regulations 2021 to "enable telecommunications companies to temporarily share approved government identifier information with regulated financial services entities."[74][75][76]
On 11 October, theOffice of the Australian Information Commissioner launched an investigation, the aim of which is to explore the company's handling of customers' data.[77]
Early on 8 November 2023, an undetermined issue caused a nationwide outage in Optus Mobile and Fixed Internet services. The outage directly impacted more than 10 million customers, including government services, hospitals and businesses. Optus Mobile customers reported that their phones showed 'SOS only' on the signal indicator, which is a sign the regular network is down, but mobile phones still have access to alternate networks in the event of an emergency call by using a so-called camping mechanism; however, Optus landlines were unable to makeTriple Zero (000) emergency calls.[78] The outage affected the communication systems for Melbourne's train network, so for safety reasons the whole network was halted until backup communications commenced, leading to major delays and cancellations throughout the day.[79][80][81]
Starting approximately 12:30 am on 18 September 2025, Optus experienced an outage affecting callers on its network being able to access theTriple Zero emergency services calling system. Approximately 600 calls to Triple Zero made from theNorthern Territory,South Australia,Western Australia andNew South Wales failed and were not camped off to another network. A technical fault in a firewall upgrade resulted in the network incorrectly blocking Triple Zero calls until at least 1:50 pm, at some point shortly after Optus reverted the change.[82][83][84]
At least four people were found to have died after being unable to contact emergency services during the outage: an eight-week-old boy and 68-year-old woman from South Australia, and a 49-year-old and 74-year-old man from Western Australia.[85] The death of the eight-week-old is not believed to be contributed to by the outage, while investigations are continuing around the other three.[86] The company has received significant criticism for its handling of the outage, including not notifying emergency services that people were unable to contact Triple Zero for at least 9 hours, delays in providing government authorities with details of failed calls, and holding press conferences announcing the deaths of callers prior to alerting authorities.[87][88][89] Multiple government regulators and police services as well as Optus have announced independent investigations into the outage and the company's handling of it.[90][83]
On 28 September, Optus experienced a separate outage inDapto, New South Wales in which nine calls to Triple Zero did not connect due to a failed mobile phone tower.[91]
On 5 November, Optus experienced a widespread issue in theHunter Valley of New South Wales. It included regions such asPort Stephens andMaitland. The issue lasted from 5:10 pm to 5:55 pm.[92]
Optus is owned by Singaporean parent company Singtel, whose executive board has been visiting Australia this week. Shares in Singtel fell by nearly 5 per cent on the Singapore Exchange on Wednesday.
Optus is fully owned by Singtel, which itself is majority owned by Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government, which owns 55 per cent of the company's issued share capital.
Optus, the second-largest telecommunications company in Australia, is 100% owned by Singtel. This acquisition has contributed substantially to Singtel's international presence.
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Members of theBridge Alliance | |
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| Retail Service Providers (RSPs) | |
|---|---|
| Wholesale Service Providers (WSPs) | |
| Former | |
| Related topics | |
