INFRA Signal 606 2 feeds carried it
Telstra mobile network outage caused by GPS receiver reporting year as 2006
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A single GPS receiver returning from maintenance in Melbourne caused a widespread network failure by broadcasting an incorrect date.
The event demonstrates how a single point of failure in time synchronization can disrupt critical infrastructure beyond mobile voice and text. It highlights the fragility of TDD networks that rely on precise timing to prevent signal jamming.
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The outage disrupted voice calls, emergency services, payment terminals, EV chargers, and trains.
A GPS receiver in Melbourne erroneously reported the year as 2006, which the rest of the network accepted.
Modern 5G TDD spectrum requires strict time synchronization to prevent cells from transmitting into neighbors' receive windows.
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The failure originated from a single chassis in Melbourne containing a GPS receiver. After scheduled maintenance, this receiver reported the year as 2006, and this incorrect time was propagated through the network. This caused a cascade that disabled voice calls, text messages, and emergency number access.
The impact extended to non-mobile systems including ticketing systems, payment terminals, and EV chargers. The network's reliance on precise time is a design choice, particularly for Time Division Duplex (TDD) protocols used in 5G. In TDD, cells must switch between transmitting and receiving in step; otherwise, they jam each other.
Telstra utilized a hierarchical NTP architecture with strata. Time flowed from Stratum 1 sources at the National Measurement Institute to Telstra's Stratum 2 servers in Sydney and Melbourne, then to Stratum 3 servers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. The system failed when the network was persuaded to believe the incorrect date provided by the faulty receiver.
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