Telstra network outage disrupts millions across Australia for five hours

Telstra, Australia's biggest phone company, lost mobile service for millions of customers on July 8, 2026. The problem lasted nearly five hours.

The cause was unusual. A faulty software update made some servers reset their clocks back to November 2006. These servers then stopped working correctly because they thought it was 20 years in the past.

The outage had serious consequences. Hundreds of emergency Triple Zero calls could not connect. Regional trains stopped running. Payment systems and public transport were also affected. Telstra carried out 333 welfare checks on vulnerable customers.