Optus outage because of 'deep fault' within networks-Australia minister

The Australian government said on Wednesday a nationwide network outage at Optus, the country's second-largest telecommunications provider, that affected millions of customers was because of a "deep fault" within the company's networks.

"This is a deep fault, it has occurred deep within the network. It has wide ramifications across mobile, fixed, and broadband services," federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told reporters.

Optus, the Australian unit of telecoms firm Singapore Telecommunications, has not yet identified the cause of the outage or how long it would take to restore service.