Xinhua News Agency, Melbourne, July 8 (Reporters Xu Haiqing and Xiong Wenyuan) — Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, Telstra, experienced a widespread network outage on the 8th, causing disruptions to rail services, banking payment systems, data centers, and other services across the country, severely impacting the daily lives of millions of people. Later that day, the company announced that services had been fully restored.

  Telstra Chief Financial Officer Michael Aklan appeared that day to apologize to the public on behalf of the company. He also stated that there was no evidence to suggest the widespread network outage was caused by a malicious external attack. Preliminary investigations indicate that a malfunction in dedicated servers responsible for time synchronization at the company’s data centers in Sydney and Melbourne may have triggered the network outage; the underlying cause remains under investigation.

  At 4:30 a.m. local time on the 8th, Telstra’s voice and data services began to experience outages. Train service connecting Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, with other parts of the state was suspended, stranding many commuters. The railway company canceled all trains for the day and advised the public to take buses or adjust their travel plans. Some non-suburban rail lines in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales were also affected. The network outage caused payment systems to crash in many areas, leaving people unable to make card payments, withdraw cash, use their cards to pay for public transportation or taxi fares, and causing disruptions at some electric vehicle charging stations.

  Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said that during this incident, some people reported being unable to get through to emergency services. Last September, Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecommunications provider, experienced a series of network outages that temporarily disrupted emergency call services, resulting in the deaths of four people who were unable to receive timely assistance.

  Australian Prime Minister Albanese said the recent Telstra network outage was a cause for "deep concern," noting that it had affected people across the country to varying degrees, and that the government would work with the company to investigate the cause of the incident.

  At approximately 5:40 p.m. local time, Telstra announced that service had been fully restored.