Mass mobile reboot behind latest XT problems

Telecom says it has now identified the cause of the meltdown of its XT network last month.

The network failure affected mobile users south of Taupo, with people south of Timaru experiencing difficulties for several days.

The beleaguered XT mobile network is still suffering problems, with the latest faults centred in New Plymouth and Upper Hutt.

In a statement released today, Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds said a surge in network traffic had overloaded a Christchurch network controller.

It was caused by thousands of users rebooting their phones after a separate network outage, he said.

Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said it was the result of the switching of some cell sites over to the new network controller which had been installed in Christchurch.

The move was designed to give more resilience to the network, which now catered for around 460,000 customers, he said.

The first four cell sites had been migrated on Tuesday with a further 16 sites changed over between 1.00am and 3.00am this morning.

Telecom had stopped the migrations until they figured out what was causing the problems.

Meanwhile, Telecom today appointed Analysys Mason to conduct its independent review of the XT mobile network.

The review will commence next week and cover its design, build and operation. It is expected to be complete within eight weeks.

Rajeev Singh-Molares, of Telecom's technology provider Alcatel-Lucent, said resolving the XT problems was the ``single most important operational matter in the world for Alcatel-Lucent right now.``

``We apologise to the customers of Telecom New Zealand. The full resources of our global business are available to address these problems we will do whatever it takes.``

Mr Watt said he hoped Telecom was not losing customers.

"We know we've tested the patience of some customers because things should work and they haven't been some of the time."

Telecom is also investigating claims one of its workers texted a customer experiencing difficulties, telling them to "f**k off".

- © Fairfax NZ News