A Senate inquiry into the debacle was given the green light last week and will be heard for the first time on Monday.
Optus chief executive Stephen Rue is among those expected to face a barrage of questions, along with the telco’s chairman John Arthur, former chairman Paul O’Sullivan and chief financial officer Michael Venter.
Officials from the communications watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, will also take center stage.
Senators hope to better understand what caused the September outage, which left hundreds of Australians unable to make triple-zero calls.
The research will also examine the effectiveness of emergency arrangements designed to move customers to another network if their telecom company experiences an outage.
Liberal backbencher Sarah Henderson, who sits on the Senate committee, said she was determined to find out exactly what went wrong.
“The coalition will lay fire at the feet of Optus, the government, the regulator and the hapless Communications Minister,” she said in a statement.
Henderson, a former opposition communications spokeswoman, has called on Communications Minister Anika Wells to lead the investigation to explain apparent discrepancies over when her office was informed of the outage.
“We will leave no stone unturned to expose the truth and hold those responsible accountable for what went wrong,” Henderson said.
The communications watchdog and Optus are both investigating the outage.
New rules that came into effect on Saturday require telecom companies to report outages in real time to the communications watchdog and emergency services.
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