Telecom finds buffer capacity for Net load

By CHRIS BARTON

Telecom has averted the overload crisis on its Auckland Airedale 4 exchange by using "buffer capacity" and balancing traffic over four, rather than three, of its "tandem exchanges" through which all interconnect calls must pass.

In a parallel development in the bitter dispute between Telecom and i4free, Clear Communications has formerly entered the fray with an injunction hearing set down for the week beginning May 22.

The overload solution described in the High Court as a "stopgap measure" means 9000 mostly Auckland users are now surfing at no cost with i4free at the rate of 600 simultaneous calls in peak times.

That compares with 250 simultaneous calls on April 5 when Telecom intervened because of overloading on one of the trunks to Airedale 4 and restricted i4free access to 100 simultaneous calls.

The High Court learned on Tuesday that rather than balancing the load in proportion to the capacity of the three trunks to Airedale, Telecom had set the maximum capacity on the basis of the smallest trunk which could handle only 240 simultaneous calls. The largest of the three trunks could take 700 simultaneous calls.

An injunction granted by Justice Potter on Friday directed Telecom not to single out i4free and to restrict access proportionately to all 0867-prefixed users nationwide if overloading occurred.

Justice Judith Potter is deciding whether to extend that injunction until the full hearing.

Should i4free's injunction fail to be continued, Clear has the option to ask the court to keep it in place until its separate injunction is heard. Clear's injunction seeks to force Telecom to honour its number portability agreement, enabling it to send 0867-prefixed calls to any providers.

In one of several mysteries that remain in the dispute, freenet, the other free internet service Telecom said was contributing to overloading, appears to have come through largely unscathed.

Telecom technical specialist David Mawby said in an affidavit he had restricted freenet's access to 300 simultaneous calls at Airedale on April 5.

But Karim Hussona, chief executive of Compass Communications, the company running freenet, said the service had 600 simultaneous calls from across New Zealand that night and no complaints from its users.

Today, the service has 17,500 users resulting in peak loads of about 720 simultaneous calls. Mr Hussona confirmed freenet was using a combination of Clear and Telecom lines.

Meanwhile, awaiting Justice Potter's decision, i4free has stopped new signups from using its service. But that does not appear to have stopped them flocking to i4free which now has 16,000 registrations.

Another discrepancy in the case is the amount each party claims Clear will gain in interconnect revenues from Telecom through i4free using Clear's network.

Telecom puts the figure at $9.5 million over the next six months; i4free at $810,000.