KEY POINTS:
Telecom has admitted selling 150 new SIM cards for global-roaming customers that do not work.
The new SIM card was aimed at enabling customers to keep the same mobile number while travelling abroad. It was supposed to be part of a global-roaming upgrade launched last week that included a new pricing system but a problem with the voicemail function has delayed the cards' roll-out.
However, about 150 cards have been sold with Samsung 531 cellphones - promoted by Telecom to use with the new SIM cards - leaving those users with a new phone and a SIM card they cannot use.
The faulty SIM cards are no longer on sale.
The cards were not allowing callers to leave voicemail messages on some networks that span the 180 countries in the global-roaming pool.
A Telecom spokeswoman could not say when the problem was likely to be fixed nor how many customers were with global roaming, citing commercial sensitivity.
Telecom global-roaming customers can use a single cellphone but need two mobile numbers and two voicemail boxes: an 027 number for Telecom's CDMA network and a number from United Kingdom company O2 for GSM networks.
One customer, who spent $399 on the Samsung cellphone, said the delay was a major inconvenience as he was about to embark on a seven-week overseas business trip/holiday to Singapore, the UK and Europe.
"Now I have to use the O2 number, which is a different number and is much more expensive than the one Telecom assured me I would have in time before we went away," said the Auckland man, who did not want to be named for fear of losing his Telecom service.
"But they now have a situation where the website is up promising all these new things but they haven't bothered to tell people about the delay. It's just another gigantic balls-up."
Telecom business solutions general manager Greg McAlister apologised for the delay and offered to provide customers with an O2 card while the problem was being fixed.
"We apologise to customers who have a Telecom New Zealand SIM and were planning on travelling [overseas] in the immediate future," he said.
"We'd like to assure them, they can still roam with one handset using an O2 SIM, which we'd be happy to provide them with.
"We are working hard to resolve the problem."
He said the delay did not affect many Telecom mobile users in Australia, where they continue to be able to use a single mobile number.
