Telstra offers customers FREE data on Sunday as an apology for disastrous national service outage caused by ONE technician's 'embarrassing human error' 

  • Telstra has offered free internet data to their customers on Sunday
  • Customers were left without mobile reception for hours on Tuesday
  • The widespread outages were caused by an 'embarrassing human error'
  • Outages identified in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth

By RACHEL EDDIE and BELINDA GRANT GEARY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and AAP

Published: | Updated:

Telstra mobile customers will be able to burn as much data as they like on Sunday, with the telco turning off the metre to apologise for a service failure.

The offer is an attempt to make amends for a national outage on Tuesday which prevented about 1.5 million people from making calls and going online.

The outage happened when a technician made a mistake while moving customers across mobile nodes - a device which helps control the flow of mobile calls connecting to the telco's larger networks.

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Thousands of Telstra customers have been left without mobile reception after a widespread disruption to its mobile services

Thousands of Telstra customers have been left without mobile reception after a widespread disruption to its mobile services

For several hours about 10 to 15 per cent of the giant telco's customers couldn't make calls, browse the net or check social media during the blackout.

But by the afternoon the nation-wide blackout was resolved.

Telstra's chief operations officer Kate McKenzie said all mobile phone customers will be given free data this Sunday.

'We're incredibly disappointed the outage occurred and deeply sorry for the inconvenience we caused,' she said.

Its 'Service Status' website displayed outages in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth at the time of publication however some customers have reported that their service has returned.

Its 'Service Status' website displayed outages in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth at the time of publication however some customers have reported that their service has returned.

'Customers don't need to do anything to receive the free data, it will happen automatically for all of our mobile customers.'

Several customers took to social media to blast the telco, while others saw it as an opportunity to poke fun.

'You should be ashamed of yourself making those poor kids talk face to face and not be able to go on social media,' @hulkfranco12 posted on Twitter.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ms McKenzie said at a press conference it was 'an embarrassing human error'.

'It is not okay,' she added.

Telstra chief operations officer Kate McKenzie said a technician tending to a network malfunction did not follow procedure which resulted in a backlog of services around the country.

'This is an embarrassing human error. It is not okay,' she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Telstra's official account replied: 'nah we just flicked the off switch as a bit of fun ;p'.

The joke comment was retweeted more than 50 times, however, Ms McKenzie said the situation wasn't a laughing matter.

Telstra's social media team used humour to diffuse the potentially embarrassing situation on Twitter, joking about the outage and saying they 'try to keep it light when we can'

Telstra's social media team used humour to diffuse the potentially embarrassing situation on Twitter, joking about the outage and saying they 'try to keep it light when we can'

 Telstra has claimed the free mobile data offered to customers has been the biggest usage the company has ever experienced in a day despite users complaining about another outage

There has been no indication from Telstra as to what caused the widespread outage

NSW Police tweeted that consumers could still call triple zero in case of emergency

NSW Police tweeted that consumers could still call triple zero in case of emergency

The company's social media pages have gone into overdrive with hundreds of disgruntled customers taking to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration or ridicule the telecommunications giant

The company's social media pages have gone into overdrive with hundreds of disgruntled customers taking to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration or ridicule the telecommunications giant

Social media users created memes about the Telstra outage, with many of them being widely shared

Social media users created memes about the Telstra outage, with many of them being widely shared

Most social media users were able to see the lighter side of the outage, making jokes about the disconnect

Most social media users were able to see the lighter side of the outage, making jokes about the disconnect

One concerned customer sent a message of support to the tech workers and customer service staff who would have copped the brunt of the service outage

One concerned customer sent a message of support to the tech workers and customer service staff who would have copped the brunt of the service outage

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