Australian mobile carrier TPG Telecom has reported it another potential Triple Zero call-related customer fatality which was linked to the usage of a Samsung mobile handset.

It comes after Australia's Minister for Communications was informed that there had been no death during the failure to connect a call to the Triple Zero network, which is operated by Telstra. Triple Zero (000) is Australia's main emergency service phone number, akin to 911 in the US or 999 in the UK.

The incident predates the previous known customer fatality last month, when TPG Telecom said that a customer died after they were unable to make a Triple Zero call over the carrier's mobile network.

That particular incident happened on November 13, said TPG, which noted the Sydney-based user was using a Lebara service on a Samsung device when they couldn't connect to Triple Zero.

However, the Guardian Australia reported this week that a second TPG Telecom customer died when attempting to connect to Triple Zero back in September, just days after Optus' significant Triple Zero outage during which four customers died.

It was only this week that TPG Telecom's chief executive, Iñaki Berroeta, said that the telco became aware of the call failure but did not know it was linked to a death until Telstra notified them on Monday ahead of the hearing.

The incident in question took place at Wentworth Falls in the NSW Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, noted Berroeta.

Breakdown in communication

During a Senate hearing this week, it emerged that the government were also unaware of the death until this week.

There was a breakdown in communication between Telstra and the government following the September 24 incident, involving the person in Wentworth Falls. The person died after their outdated Samsung device failed to connect to the triple-zero network.

However, providing evidence at the inquiry, a senior communications department official, Sam Grunhard, said Telstra – which operates the emergency call system – contacted the department on September 24 to report a suspected death, as reported by the Guardian.

Grunhard said that the minister's office was operating on the assumption that there had not been a death until Telstra contacted Grunhard late on Monday to “raise a concern that there seemed to be a difference in understanding about the 24 September incident."

Telstra also spoke with Anika Wells' office in October, but failed to disclose the incident on the occasion.

At a separate meeting on October 7 between Wells and telco bosses in the aftermath of the September Optus outage, which was linked to three deaths, the incident was again not mentioned.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young slammed Telstra during the inquiry for its failure to report the fatality.

“I am absolutely flabbergasted that despite … the huge public concern we have about [Triple Zero outages] … not at one point in this did anyone within the industry want to fess up and say there’d been another death six days [after the Optus outage]. It’s a cover-up. You’re all looking after yourselves,” she said.

Eric Chou, head of mobile division, Samsung Australia, noted that an investigation was launched following the Wentworth Falls incident. He said this investigation found there were 71 models that were either blocked or requiring an update.

According to Chou, these devices were sold between 2015 and 2021 and were configured to connect with Vodafone’s 3G network, as 4G emergency calling was not available on Vodafone’s 4G network until 2021.

It comes at a time when Australia's Triple Zero service is in the public spotlight, amid several Optus outages that have impacted the service.

During one such outage in September, four people died and more than 600 customers were impacted. The situation hasn't been helped by two separate outages where vandals deliberately attacked its network infrastructure, including last week in Melbourne, following another fiber cut last month.

Last year, the carrier was slapped with an AU$12 million ($7.93m) fine for an outage in 2023. The outage, which happened on November 8, 2023, lasted more than 14 hours. Optus is currently under investigation for the recent outages.

DCD sends its sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased.