Peter Adderton, founder of Boost Mobile and one of Australia’s most experienced telecommunications executives, has urged the Federal Government to “immediately” force the sale of Optus, declaring he is ready to lead a consortium to take control of the struggling Singtel-owned network.

Speaking exclusively to ChannelNews from the US, Adderton — who recently sold Boost Mobile Australia to Telstra for $145 million — said a locally led group, backed by Australian super funds and capital investors, could rebuild Optus into a stronger, Australian-owned business. He also confirmed that former Prime Minister Paul Keating, an early backer of Boost Mobile, could again be part of the ownership structure.

“Optus needs an experienced operator, not a foreign-based owner unwilling to invest,” Adderton said. “There’s no way back for Optus after this latest failure. People died because they couldn’t reach triple-zero — that should never happen.”

FILE PHOTO: Peter Adderton, founder of Boost Mobile, speaks during an interview with CNBC on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 29, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Optus CEO Stephen Rue has admitted that, in addition to four deaths already linked to the outage, another seven customers were unable to contact emergency services during the recent network collapse.

Adderton brushed off concerns about his five-year non-compete clause with Telstra, arguing it “wouldn’t stand up in court” if the government intervened. “If Canberra wants Singtel out, they’ll tell Telstra to pull their head in,” he said.

Track Record of Telecom Deals

Adderton is no stranger to big-ticket telecom transactions. In 2004, he sold Boost Mobile USA to Nextel for $900 million. In 2019, he floated a $2 billion offer to buy back Boost’s US prepaid brand from Sprint, well above the price Dish Network eventually paid.

Keating, meanwhile, first invested $500,000 in Boost Mobile back in 2000, taking a 29% stake. When Boost shifted from Optus to Telstra’s network in 2013 and was later acquired outright by Telstra in 2024, the former Prime Minister is believed to have pocketed at least $40 million.

International Influence

Adderton now runs MobileX, a new network in the US that is preparing to launch in Australia. He is also advising the Trump administration on spectrum policy amid AT&T’s controversial plan to acquire airwaves from EchoStar. Having warned regulators about the pitfalls of the Sprint–T-Mobile merger, he says the US market is proof that desperate deals rarely deliver real competition.

“They smashed Dish, Boost and others together in desperation. The remedies were never viable, and consumers were the losers,” Adderton said.

Blame on Singtel and ACMA

Adderton accuses Singtel of underinvesting in Optus and failing basic safeguards, such as testing triple-zero access during upgrades.

Some observers claim that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), calling it “underfunded and toothless,” and questioned whether uncertified devices on Optus’s network contributed to the failure.

Optus has faced penalties before. Last year it was fined $12 million for another outage that left more than 2,000 Australians unable to reach emergency services.

“Australians must be able to call for help when they need it most. Optus has failed that test again — and this time, people have died,” Adderton said.