Australia’s TPG Telecom has confirmed that a customer died after being unable to make emergency “000” calls using a Samsung device running outdated software.
In a statement, TPG said its mobile network was fully operational at the time of the failed calls, with no outages detected. The incident occurred on November 13 in Sydney.
This development comes shortly after two major emergency-call failures at Optus, Australia’s second-largest telco, which disrupted thousands of calls and were linked to four deaths. Those outages — one caused by a faulty firewall upgrade and another by a mobile tower that failed to recognise a 4G service breakdown — triggered a parliamentary inquiry into the Singtel-owned operator.
TPG said early investigations show the customer’s Samsung phone was using software incompatible with the company’s emergency-calling system, resulting in multiple failed attempts to contact triple zero.
The telco has since urged customers using older Samsung devices to update their software immediately to ensure they can make emergency calls. TPG also confirmed it has notified the relevant government and regulatory authorities regarding the incident.
