Bungled software upgrade cuts TelstraClear access

By PAUL BRISLEN

TelstraClear is facing criticism for its actions during a major network failure that affected its business customers.

Some customers of ClearNet and Paradise, TelstraClear's two internet providers, were unable to connect over the weekend after a software upgrade that went wrong.

TelstraClear rolled out a software upgrade to its network on Sunday night but problems with the upgrade meant it reverted to the older version on Monday.

However, problems continued into Tuesday with some users reporting problems with local websites and some voice services as well.

Those affected included the Land Transport Safety Authority, whose media manager, Andy Knackstedt, said its online Warrant of Fitness service was mildly disrupted by the outage but didn't affect customers.

The Ministry of Justice was also affected, although spokesman Steven Heath said the problem was restricted to email sent between two ministry sites.

However, some internet service administrators were unhappy with the lack of communication during the outage, especially when TelstraClear decided to revert to the older software. Spokesman Mathew Bolland said the problem involved the software upgrade and had affected only a small proportion of TelstraClear's customers.

Technicians were working out what went wrong and how to change the software before trying again.