Image: Rick Rycroft/AP/REX/Shutterstock/@JohnJohnsonson
Telstra probably hoped the hashtag #TelstraOutage would be left behind in 2016. Sorry honey, no such luck.
On Thursday afternoon, Australia’s largest phone network went down for some users following a fire at a Chatswood exchange, which impacted mobile and fixed services.
While the outage was genuinely disruptive, many could not resist making the joke of the day. And what a joke it was.
On Twitter, the company said that due to the incident some SMS messages were “incorrectly delivered,” adding that it would hold all messages until the issue was resolved.
Due to today’s incident, it’s possible some SMS messages were incorrectly delivered. All messages will be held while we resolve the issue.
— Telstra (@Telstra) February 2, 2017
In any case, the jig was up, with a few people getting misdirected demands for treats. Also, instructions from a complete random to stop being “rood” and take a pie out of the freezer.
And what of the joke?
A Washington Post report just that morning had detailed how U.S. President Donald Trump absolutely rinsed Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in one of their first official phone calls, including the delectable morsel that Trump “abruptly” cut the chat short after only 25 minutes.
After hearing that Trump called the congratulatory chat between leaders the “worst phone call by far,” the tweets just seemed to write themselves.
I can’t believe Trump’s phonecall with Turnbull was so explosive it shut down the Telstra network.
— John Johnsonson (@JohnJohnsonson) February 2, 2017
Maybe Trump didn’t hang up on Turnbull. Maybe Turnbull is just with @Telstra and got cut off
— Roger Oldridge (@roger_oldridge) February 2, 2017
Good work, everybody. Obviously this schmozzle hasn’t affected Twitter’s spirits. If anything, it’s enlivened them. Sit tight till the phone lines right themselves.
Telstra has been contacted by Mashable for comment regarding the scale of the outage.
This story is developing.
