MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia on Monday foreshadowed changes to the country’s telecommunications industry after a major company’s failure to connect hundreds of emergency calls last week was linked to four deaths.

Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecom company, blamed a “technical failure” on Thursday last week for 624 calls failing to connect to emergency services. While Americans call “9-1-1” in an emergency, Australians call “0-0-0.” Someone died in four of those Australian emergencies.

Optus was fined more than 12 million Australia dollars ($8 million) for failing to meet emergency call rules during another network outage on Nov. 8, 2023.

Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, was fined AU$3 million ($2 million) in December last year for failing to comply with emer

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