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Telecom's boss says sorry isn't good enough anymore after the latest breakdown of its $600 million XT Mobile network.
It's again offering compensation, this time worth $10 million, following the fourth meltdown since Christmas.
In the latest breakdown , users from Taupo south started to experience significant network interruptions on Monday afternoon. Customers complained of problems accessing voicemail, delayed text messages, and being unable to call other XT phones.
Telecom initially denied there was a problem before updating its website with notification of the system disruption at 5.50pm. The company announced around midnight that services have been restored to most of the affected cell sites.
Telecom has announced compensation for those customers who choose to stay loyal to the company. It says it will give all customers south of Taupo a 33% discount for the next three months.
Prepaid customers will get a 33% bonus each time they top up their phone while those on fixed monthly contracts will get see a third shaved from their next three monthly accounts and business clients will get cuts of 50% off their bills over the same period.
At Dunedin's Golden Shopping Centre, Monday's failure was the last straw and management will hold a crisis meeting over their Telecom contracts on Wednesday.
"I think we'll probably end up having to switch networks. The effect on our business, now that we've had four failures, has been very, very significant and it's something that cannot continue," says Simon Eddy, an XT customer.
And Telecom's CEO Paul Reynolds has now offered compensation to try and keep customers sweet.
"Saying sorry is not good enough, actions have to speak louder than words," Reynolds told a news conference.
Monday's was the fifth outage in three months.
Disgruntled XT customers have used social networking sites to tell Telecom it's run out of chances.
"I think it has, and I think it knows that because here it is with a package of very heavy discounts as an effort to keep its customers while it gets this thing sorted out," says Ernie Newman of the Telecom Users Association NZ.
Telecom says it will talk with customers determined to get out of their contracts.
"We will have a one-on-one conversation with customers if that's what they wish," says Reynolds.
Telecom says it will more closely manage the network. And already heads have rolled.
The failures have resulted in the resignation of the executive who oversaw the project, Frank Mount. And Steve Lowe, the boss of Alcatel-Lucent which built the network for Telecom, is gone too.
The CEO is side-stepping questions over his own job.
"As the CEO I'm here for the tough times, to lead this organisation through these tough times," says Reynolds.
Telecom has been criticised over the amount it invested in the XT network. It spent just under $600 million including two radio network controllers to run XT.
Rival vodafone says it put $1 billion into its 3G network and built six controllers.
"We absolutely haven't cut corners in XT. Many analysts and professionals in the industry thought it was a relatively costly plan," says Reynolds.
The plan has just cost Telecom another $10 million in compensation.
Telecom might be on notice with its customers but it has put its XT partner on notice too. Reynolds says Alcatel-Lucent is on its last chance.
Trade Me auction
As well as using Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration, XT customers are also turning to online auction site Trade Me.
A seller in Wellington has put a lemon up for sale, saying it's about as useful as the entire plagued network. Small business owner Richard Horne says his phone is usually his lifeline, but at the moment it's only causing stress.
The successful bidder will have to travel to Wellington to pick up the lemon as Horne says the XT network "just cannot deliver".
