Liberal senator Sarah Henderson will on Tuesday move to set up a parliamentary probe into the Optus outage in September, which has been linked to three deaths.
She has also called for Communications Minister Anika Wells to appear before the inquiry, should it get off the ground.
"It is incumbent on the minister to do the right thing in the national interest and give evidence," she said.
The move to set up the inquiry also has the backing of the Greens, who will team up with the coalition in the Senate on the proposal.
While the Australian Communications and Media Authority already set up its own inquiry into the outage, Senator Henderson said it was "woefully inadequate and riddled with conflicts of interest".
An Optus spokesperson said the telco had commissioned an independent review and was co-operating with the communications watchdog.
"The independent review led by Dr Kerry Schott ... is focused on the technical failure, operational response, and internal processes surrounding the outage," the spokesperson said.
"This review is examining all relevant correspondence, timelines, and decision-making frameworks within Optus."
The call for a separate inquiry coincides with Ms Wells writing to the communications watchdog directing it to ensure a public register of network outages is set up.
"Triple zero is a critical public safety system and Australians need confidence that it will be available when they need it," Ms Wells said.
"A public register of network outages will increase transparency and accountability around outages and related impacts on access to triple zero."
The register will ensure affected people are aware of outages impacting their network providers in real time.
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