False time change fools Australians

Thousands of Australians woke and left for work or other places an hour early on Wednesday after a mobile phone glitch set their phone clocks an hour ahead.

The affected phone owners were in south-east Queensland, the most populated area of the state, which does not observe daylight saving as other states do.

Optus and Virgin customers were affected by the automatic change, and Brisbane talk back radio stations were filled with stories about people who use their mobiles as an alarm clock and thus who woke too early.

An Optus spokeswoman told Fairfax Radio it was caused by a technical problem in the network. Endi