NZ still in mobile turmoil

Widespread service problems are continuing to plague customers on Telecom New Zealand's 3G XT mobile network throughout the South Island and areas on the North Island south of Taupo.

Telecom outage strands customers
(Mobile Phone image by Milica Sekulic, CC2.0)

Yesterday, the telco promised customers that service would be restored around midday for XT customers.

However, customers are experiencing patchy or no service in areas south of Taupo today. Andrew Joll of Online Computer Consultants in the southern city of Invercargill reports that there is XT service in some suburbs, but the network is down in the central business district.

A Telecom spokesperson confirmed that a number of XT cell sites are affected, mainly in the South Island.

The spokesperson said that "there is loss of XT service in parts of Dunedin, Invercargill, Timaru and Queenstown". Apart from these southern cities, the spokesperson said customers in areas south of Taupo are also experiencing degraded service.

Asked if Telecom has an estimated time for resolving the problems, the spokesperson declined to answer.

The IT services arm of Telecom, Gen-i Australasia, has confirmed the widespread outages today in a new email from CEO Chris Quin to customers. Quin is advising Gen-i customers to use landlines for emergencies and to check voicemail on XT.

Yesterday, there were ="http: www.bloomberg.com="" apps="" news?pid="20601081&sid=aeXrXRNHbgf8"" target="_blank">reports that an enraged Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds has ordered an independent review of the fault-stricken XT network. Alcatel-Lucent built the WCDMA network for Telecom.

There were no details about the review available yet, such as when it will be conducted and by whom, according to the Telecom spokesperson.