How the Telstra outage impacted these Australians

Lourdes Alvarado (right) was working in the early hours of the morning when she first noticed the Telstra outage, which impacted her mother. (Supplied)

At the break of dawn, Lourdes Alvarado first noticed her Telstra phone was not working.

She was listening to the radio then everything suddenly went "dead".

Telstra says its services have been mostly restored after a nationwide outage that impacted potentially millions of Australians.

But the incident's widespread impact has prompted some experts to warn about the fragility of Australia's digital infrastructure.

But all Ms Alvarado could think about was how to contact her elderly 95-year-old mother, for who she is the primary carer.

Follow the latest developments in the Telstra network outage in our live blog.

But luckily for Ms Alvarado, her neighbour was able to go downstairs to speak to her mother despite a language barrier.

"I was more stressed for her just because she would probably try to get out of the house and try to ask someone on the street to call me.

"She wouldn't have understood what was going on … she's a very anxious person."

Ms Alvarado says she was concerned a fall at her mother's age could be life-changing. (Supplied)

Ms Alvarado, who works as an allied health assistant in Melbourne, was concerned her elderly mother could have fallen if she was to leave their apartment on her own.

"She's generally OK mobility-wise, but she does have to walk with her two-wheeled frames. So she's at risk of falls," she said.

"A fall and a break for a 95-year-old, it's not the same as a fall and a break for you … She would have ended up in hospital.

"I see it every day here. People may sometimes just, that's it. They can't go home from here because of a fall."

Ms Alvarado says she is thankful nothing happened to her mother, but she is unimpressed by Telstra. (Supplied)

Mohammed Khan, who lives in Sydney's west, was taking his son to childcare for the first time this morning.

Mohammed Khan says he was frustrated by the lack of communication from Telstra after the outage. (Supplied)

But when he grabbed his phone to call his wife for the address and entry code for the centre, he could not reach her.

The father of four then asked his older daughter to try, but no calls were getting through.

After about five minutes roaming the street, he found the centre.

"Then I had to wait for the teacher to recognise my child and then open the door," he said.

"I was thinking what to say … it was a bit of worry that because they don't know me.

"I was anxious at the time and not very happy with my phone