Peter Adderton, the Australian who built the multibillion-dollar Boost Mobile Network, both in Australia and the USA, and is highly respected by the US Federal Government for his knowledge of the telecommunication industry, has slammed the Singaporean owners of Owners blaming them for the “cultural and operating” problems the carrier is now facing and that the business should be sold.

In an exclusive interview with ChannelNews he claimed that the problems at Optus are linked directly to the culture at the Company and that the Singaporean owners Singtel, who he claims threw CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin “To the wolves” with her appearance at the Senate inquiry last week.

“I think the corporate cultural differences between Singapore management and Australian management cannot be underestimated” he said.

“What we saw in the handling of both the data breach and the recent outage is the result of the culture difference between both Companies”.

“I think it is time for Singtel to accept that their corporate culture and the culture of how Australians operate is very different, and that culture difference is at the heart of the problem.”

He claims that the board of Optus, who were in Australia when the 2022 hack attack took place and last week when the network crashed for 12 hours, are gutless when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions and that of the management in a Company, they own and control.

“Singtel management are Singaporeans who hide whenever there is any hint of trouble,” he said.

When the Optus network crash happened, not one single board member stepped up to defend the Company or support the CEO, who has since resigned from the business despite the entire board being in Australia when the crash happened.

Sintel management even went ahead with a financial briefing 24 hours after the network outage with not one mention of the problems Australians were facing as a result of the Optus network crash.

He has called for Optus to be sold back to Australians and not be controlled by a foreign Company with a history of network failures.

Peter Adderton Boost Mobile Boss

“There is a cultural problem with Optus being owned by a Singapore-based Company” he added.

“Nothing is authentic, and that’s how Singtel management came across,” he said.

What Optus needed to do was deliver real-time communication as the issue unfolded; people needed to be told what was happening.

As for the future of Optus, he said that the new CEO has to be consumer-facing. They are not there to run a network or run an operation. They are there to engage with customers, Singaporeans with their culture are not right for Australia, and the problems at Optus will not be fixed until they are out of the picture.”

Optus needs to be Australian-owned and not a small division of a large global Company.

If sold, Optus, which services around 40% of Australian communication needs, could be worth more than $18bn, and with a management team that is consumer-focused, the business could grow, according to Adderton, who has a reputation for growing telecommunication businesses.

Questions are being asked about the need for crisis communications experience, with Adderton claiming that there should have been rolling communication across multiple social and news networks.

ChannelNews understands that Singtel management is open to discussions around the sale of the business or a public offering that could put Optus where Adderton believes it should be, “In the hands of Australian owners”.

The Optus outage left nearly half the population without phones or internet for 12 hours, with the business now facing class actions, compensation payouts, and possible Government fines.