Update 22 May 2018: Telstra has advised a software fault was the reason, details in this iTWire article.
Original story continues:
When it comes to things being unlimited, there are always limits. For example, there is a limit to the patience of Telstra customers who are rightly wondering why Australia's "best mobile network" also appears to be best at switching itself off.
The irony can't be lost on Optus, which was forced by Telstra and the court to stop noting its win as "best mobile network" from the 2017 P3 – at least temporarily, until a final court decision is made .
Of course, Optus struck back, before this current outage, at Telstra using the word "unlimited" when limits of sorts do actually apply, but what happens there is yet to be seen, and whether the current outage has any bearing on the case is yet to be seen.
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It's a simple thing, Telstra folk – if you're going to inform some parts of the media, a simple CC: or BCC: lets other journalists you KNOW are covering you benefit from your quotes attributed to an anonymous "spokesperson".
Still, it's obvious Telstra likes playing silly games, or we wouldn't be having these outages, so when I get a personal outage from a Telstra spokesperson deciding not to send me the same quote they send others, until I ask for it, well, it's part of the unlimited outage spokesperson quote guessing game, I guess. Why Telstra's communications people don't proactively communicate to those who then communicate even widely is unknown.
So, while Telstra hasn't announced the actual reason for the outage at its Twitter page, or in any emails to me (but which it may have divulged to the news-com-au folk unbeknownst to the rest of us as it already did with the details below), the telco has posted this info at its Twitter page:
NEW UPDATE SINCE POSTING THIS ARTICLE:
Our 3G and 4G voice and data traffic are approaching typical daily levels but we're still working to resolve intermittent issues or delayed call connection for some customers. We're still investigating the root cause.
— Telstra (@Telstra) May 21, 2018
ORIGINAL TWEETS CONTINUE:
Our 4G voice and data traffic volume is improving nationally after we bypassed hardware that had been preventing some customers from accessing the 4G mobile network. 3G voice and data volumes are also improving. We're very sorry for the interruption to services.
— Telstra (@Telstra) May 21, 2018
Our 3G and 4G voice and data traffic volume continues to be progressively restored nationally. We're working with many of our enterprise and government customers to ensure their services are restored as quickly as possible.
— Telstra (@Telstra) May 21, 2018
So, there you have it. A fix is progressively wending its way across Telstra's network.
Whether the cause is a rogue ZTE smartphone logic bombing its way towards Telstra's core network is a cause for complete and completely unlikely speculation.
Could it be yet another rogue upgrade, as was the case last time, that was tried again but which had a similar result?
We don't yet know. It could be a cosmic ray striking some sensitive Telstra spot. Perhaps it is a meteorite having smashed into Telstra's primary data centre, the one to control all overs, which has caused a rift in time, space and NBN speeds.
It's hard to know from this side of the looking glass, but eventually Telstra will go down the rabbit hole, it will see how far the rabbit hole goes, and Telstra will reboot the Matrix so that we can all go back to digital sleep as technology keeps us artificially awake.
What comes next is guaranteed – Telstra will fix the problem, and balanced will be restored to the force, but whether Andy Penn is a Jedi Master or a Sith Lord is still as yet unknown.
May the force be with you, and may your Telstra services be restored faster than the Falcon can do the Kessel run.
Update 22 May 2018: Telstra has advised a software fault was the reason, details in this iTWire article.
