Queensland police have reported that numerous emergency calls across the state were unable to connect to Triple Zero (000) amid a nationwide outage affecting Telstra services.

This significant network disruption rendered mobile phone and data services inaccessible for millions of Australians, resulting in payment systems being interrupted and halting some interstate passenger train services yesterday.

According to Telstra, over 300 calls to Triple Zero were impacted due to a severe software issue within its data centers.

Queensland police have identified 21 individuals who attempted to reach emergency services but were unsuccessful since the morning of the outage. Superintendent Brook Dwyer confirmed that “every single person” has since been reached.

Out of the failed calls, authorities reported that seven were made accidentally, and one individual no longer required assistance. Among the callers, five needed help from the Queensland Ambulance Service, but another person had already notified emergency services on their behalf.

Initially, emergency responders faced challenges locating one caller; however, they later managed to track the individual’s phone and confirmed that they were on holiday in Victoria.

“We actually had seven situations where we couldn’t establish contact with the individuals, so we dispatched police vehicles to all of those locations,” Superintendent Dwyer stated. “It has been a long 24 hours, and we have been in communication with every single person.”

She added that Telstra had informed the police that anyone who was unable to connect to Triple Zero should attempt to call again, as subsequent attempts were successful.

Similar welfare checks were conducted nationwide following the disruption of Triple Zero services, and investigations into the outage’s effects on emergency operations are ongoing.