Telecom vows to fix XT fault

Cartooon / Rod Emmerson

Telecom has promised no stone will be left unturned in a review of its failing XT network, and a watchdog warns a lot will hinge on how open the company is with the findings.

The independent review is Telecom's response to tens of thousands of mobile customers south of Taupo losing their connections for varying lengths of time over the past two days. Dozens of cell sites were still not operating in the Deep South late yesterday.

It is the second major fault in two months to strike a network marketed as world-class, and Telecom admits it is unacceptable. Compensation is expected to follow for customers once the fault is repaired, but already internet forums are full of people threatening to switch providers.

"This independent reviewer will look at stuff from top to bottom, and we'll go from there," said Telecom spokesman Mark Watts. "Hopefully it will contribute to a situation whereby our customers get what they deserve ... which is a world-class network."

Ernie Newman, head of the Telecommunications Users' Association, said Telecom had to ensure the problems were fixed properly.

"Because there is no way it can possibly contemplate having a third outage on this scale, or I suspect there would then be a huge collapse in confidence."

The network review had to be transparent, Mr Newman said.

"If it wants its customers, and particularly its big business customers, to continue to have confidence in it, it needs to expose that [review] in some detail. The more information you give, the more convinced people are that you actually know what you are doing and you're fixing it ... That's what people need to know here."

Mr Newman said there would be some "crumbling at the margins" of Telecom's customer base, rather than a "wholesale walk-away".

Other providers are poised to benefit as disgruntled Telecom customers look for alternatives.

"These things are always an opportunity," said Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen. "Certainly we are seeing customers express an interest."

Mr Watts said no guarantees could be given that network problems will not recur. "Any network of any complexity, it can and sometimes does have failures. Whether it's airline ticketing systems, or Eftpos systems, that happens."