Phone ad not so phoney

Reporter Anna Leask tries out her XT mobile phone. Photo / Herald on Sunday

It's the ad aiming to convince a nation that Telecom's troubled XT network is finally A-okay.

And although footage of Scottish chief executive Paul Reynolds fly fishing near Queenstown has divided viewers, the claims in the commercial appear to be true, at least most of the time.

The Herald on Sunday went south this week with rod, reel and cellphones to find out if XT worked where the ad was filmed as well as Reynolds claimed.

It was shot on the Greenstone River, about 35km from Glenorchy, a small settlement 47km from Queenstown.

We found a spot an estimated 800m away from where the ad was filmed and made more than a dozen calls to a mobile in Auckland.

Reception drifted in and out and neither of the users could hear what the other was saying.

Attempts to make calls on Vodafone proved futile but calls could be connected on the regular Telecom network.

Although XT coverage faded in and out on the road to Glenorchy, in the township we had no problems with either Telecom network but no success with Vodafone. Residents said they had no problems with XT.

Fly fishing guide Gordy Watson, who helped with Reynolds' look for the advert, said its coverage was "great".

"I'm on XT and I reckon it's sweet up here. We don't get coverage everywhere, but I don't have any complaints."

Glenorchy Information Centre's Sue Rooney had heard complaints about XT around Christmas, but nothing since.

Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said various factors could affect coverage, including topography and network demand.

He said Telecom had never claimed the $600 million network was 100 per cent available around the country but they had worked "very hard" on fixing problems.

"The picture of coverage, along with the factors we have listed, may explain why your reporter may have had problems with coverage at some stage in her travels."

He said calls made during filming between crew members, Reynolds and Telecom staff in Auckland proved the XT network worked from Glenorchy and the Greenstone River.

"Coverage was crystal clear. Members of the film crew [were] also making and receiving calls over the two days of the shoot without any coverage problems at all," he said.

Unlike the XT launch ad, the calls received by Reynolds were genuine, said Watts.

That ad, featuring Kiwi stuntwoman Zoe Bell and TopGear presenter Richard Hammond, showed Bell being dropped into the ocean while harnessed inside a shipping container, and calling Hammond from Wellington's Mt Victoria tunnel, Whitford and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Telecom admitted the stunt was "too dangerous" to complete and Bell never made the calls.