Optus has admitted significant underreporting of failed 000 calls during a recent outage.

Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications company, says that during its extensive outage on November 8, a staggering 2,697 emergency calls to 000 failed, contradicting earlier reports. 

This figure contrasts with the initial estimate of 228 failed calls reported to a senate inquiry. 

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has expressed deep concern over this development, and Optus's interim CEO, Michael Venter, has issued an apology.

The revelation came to light during a senate hearing into the outage. 

Former CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who led the company during the incident and subsequently resigned, had initially assured that all 228 affected customers had received welfare checks and were safe. 

It has now been revealed that an additional 2,468 customers who attempted to contact emergency services were left unaccounted for.

Venter, the acting CEO, stressed the company's commitment to customer safety but admitted the grave lapse in service on the day of the outage. 

He detailed plans to personally reach out and apologise to each affected customer, offering assistance for their specific situations.

The implications of this outage were far-reaching. Australians experienced not only significant disruptions in their daily lives, including challenges in using public transport and accessing essential services but also faced dire risks as people in urgent need could not reach emergency services. 

A comprehensive review of the incident is underway and is set to be presented to the government by the end of February. 

This review is expected to shed further light on the circumstances leading to the outage and the subsequent misreporting of its impact.

The company is currently cooperating with ongoing investigations by the government, the senate committee, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), and has pledged to implement any recommendations from the independent review.