The Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) share price will be on watch today after the telco giant suffered a major outage that has prevented triple-zero calls being made.
According to the ABC, voice calls to triple-zero are being impacted across New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia after a Telstra cable was cut.
The cable, which runs between Orange and Bowral in New South Wales, is believed to have been severed at around 2am by an unknown party.
While Telstra was quick to respond and the impacted cable was restored at about 4:50am today, there are reports that some callers to triple-zero are still struggling to get through.
At 6:30am this morning Ambulance Victoria tweeted that: "We are experiencing issues with some calls to 000. @ESTA000 advise Victorians calling 000 for emergencies who don't get through the first time to keep trying."
The ABC also reported that there were issues in South Australia. However, triple-zero services in that state are believed to be fully functional now.
What now?
Considering how weak investor sentiment is for Telstra at the moment, this is the last thing that shareholders would have wanted to wake up to this morning.
If Telstra is found to be at fault here then I wouldn't be surprised to see it hit with a fine or potential law suits from impacted callers.
But until the cause of the cable cut is known, I feel it would be unfair to point the finger at Telstra. Especially as it appears to have responded very quickly to resolve the issue.
Investors may want to stay clear of the telco giant's shares today or until the full details of this incident are known.
Until then, dividend shares such as Dicker Data Ltd (ASX: DDR) and WAM Capital Limited (ASX: WAM) could be worth a closer look.