Optus services are resuming after national outage

Millions of customers across Australia were unable to make calls or use the internet during the national outage which started around 4am Wednesday, November 8.

Phones lines at Wollongong Private Hospital were down for hours and patients told to contact the facility through their website's contact form. By early afternoon services had resumed at the health facility.

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At Wollongong Hospital there were reports of outages, but a Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District spokeswoman said "telecommunications services are not routinely provided by this carrier".

"We continue to monitor any potential impact on our services," she said. "Maintaining patient care, safety and service delivery remains our highest priority."

Triple-0 emergency calls did not work from an Optus fixed landline telephone, but mobile calls to triple-0 will work if another carrier is available, Optus confirmed.

Outages affected businesses across the Illawarra, with members of the public cranky they couldn't make call or access online banking.

Jack Thongsa is among those who rely on electronic payments and said the outage has been a challenge.

"I can't use anything, even my bank account," he said. "I usually use my card because having it [cash] in the bank is safer."

Despite the outage, Mr Thongsa said he'll probably stick to card payments in the future.

Optus customer Liam Matika was also left frustrated: "It's just annoying, it's the same for everyone."

While some businesses are going cashless, he often still pays with cash.

"I believe cash is important, I had cash on my today," he said.

Gabby Sebben, who works at Pepe's Garden on Keira Street, needed to hotspot from her phone to open the work emails - a fate which befell many Illawarra businesses.

"EFTPOS is working, but it's offline. It just won't go through until it comes back online," she said.

Customers found a way though, sending orders via social media message or email.

Telstra customers Justine and Chris McKenzie didn't need to find a way but they did join in the cash versus card debate.

Mr McKenzie pays by card: "I've never really get cash out. I always find it a lot of hassle to go to the bank and get cash on me."

Mrs McKenzie, however, likes to have a little cash on reserve 'just in case'.

By early afternoon the telco posted to its social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, that some services across fixed and mobile were gradually being restored.

"This may take a few hours for all services to recover, and different services may restore at different sites over that time," the statement said.

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The telecommunications provider does not know the root cause of the outage but federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said the fault was likely "deep in the core" and "fundamental to the network".

The NSW Poisons Information Centre hotline is currently impacted by the outage and people are urged to call the temporary hotline on 1300 392 539 for all poisons advice.

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