100,000 to get phone redress

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2.140

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Telecom plans to compensate at least 100,000 customers after a "technical fault" in Christchurch cut off the XT mobile network for much of the country.

However, Telecom would not comment on compensation details yesterday.

"We don't expect customers to stump for services they didn't receive," Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said. "We are looking at how we can make good on that."

The major fault at 5am yesterday knocked out Telecom's XT network for the whole country south of Taupo.

Customers could not make or receive mobile calls, text messages or emails for most of the day.

Bayleys Canterbury chief executive, Scott McCrea, said the fault had come at a bad time, with many buyers trying to contact staff after a busy weekend of open homes.

"We won't know the level of the fall-out till we are up and running again," he said yesterday.

McCrea said Bayleys' 120 staff in Canterbury and the Southern Lakes region had missed meetings and important calls.

It was the third time the network had failed since Bayleys had switched from the old CDMA network.

If it appeared the business had lost sales, Bayleys would be "entering into a conversation" with Telecom about compensation.

Christchurch lines company Orion also had disruptions to its business as a result of the fault, with difficulty contacting some contractors on the XT network.

However, Orion chief executive Roger Sutton said the network failure was more useful as a lesson in what not to do as an infrastructure company.

"Its good for us to . . . experience how much people hate it when the lights go out," he said.

Orion would not be seeking compensation, he said.

Yesterday's fault was the biggest on the XT network since its May launch .

Telecom said the fault related to equipment in Christchurch.

Several telecommunications commentators believed it was probably a software failure, possibly as the network underwent an upgrade.

Australian-based telecommunications consultant Paul Budde said such a major fault should prompt a Government review of mobile-network supply security.

"This requires legislation to make sure this can't happen by having redundancy networks in place," he said.

"When the next disaster happens, it will be too late."

However, he did not believe the fault would damage Telecom's customer base.

Telecommunications consultant and former Telecom chief technology officer, Murray Milner, said it suggested XT pre- launch testing had not been good enough. The new network might deliver on speed but the fault raised questions about resilience, he said.

"But one would have to give Telecom the benefit of the doubt and say it was a hiccup," he said.

All XT mobile network services had resumed by 5pm yesterday.

- © Fairfax NZ News