Thirty emergency calls cut off due to XT outage

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Almost 30 calls to the 111 emergency call centre were cut off yesterday due to problems with Telecom's XT network.

The acting national manager for Police Communications Centres, Superintendent Kelvin Powell, told One News 27 calls to Telecom's 111 call centre were dropped by the XT network before callers could be connected to emergency services.

However police were confident most of those callers were either contacted by police, had used another method to call 111, or had dialled the number accidentally.

Telecom spokesperson Katherine Murphy said some XT users in the North Island were having intermittent problems making or receiving calls, but texts and data is unaffected.

The problem was caused by a software problem, and was operating as normal from 3pm.

The XT network came under fire when it was plagued with outage problems after it was launched in 2009.

- Staff reporter with NZPA