Vodafone makes good on mobile billing error

By PETER GRIFFIN

Vodafone has credited thousands of customers after an upgrade glitch on its mobile data network saw them charged double for web browsing.

The mobile operator took the unusual move of sending out text messages to customers informing them of the billing error, which happened more than a week ago and was fixed within 30 minutes of being discovered.

Vodafone spokeswoman Sarah Williams said about 20,000 customers were affected.

"The problem was caused by an upgrade to our GPRS network which resulted in incorrect charging," said Williams.

"Our technology team identified that some of our customers were being overcharged by around double for browsing using GPRS."

Businesses are the biggest users of mobile data but the launch of the Vodafone Live! service, which allows users to access information and entertainment services via special handsets, has boosted data usage in the consumer market.

Vodafone is understood to maintain separate billing systems for all of its services - GSM, GPRS, PXT, pre-pay and account customers among them.

That means a billing failure with one service is unlikely to affect the entire system.

Vodafone technicians turned the billing system off as they worked to fix it.

Customers were to be reimbursed through their monthly bills with a "little more for the inconvenience", said Williams.

"Of course, we hate to inconvenience our customers and do everything we can to avoid this. If it does happen we do everything we can to make good and minimise their inconvenience."

In its financial year which ended in March, Vodafone said data revenue had increased from 9.1 per cent to 12.7 per cent of total revenue, putting its data business at around $107 million.

When the data figures were made public in May, managing director Tim Miles said: "People are enthusiastically adopting mobile as the way to do business and run their lives.

"Our increase in data shows customers are expanding the ways they use mobile."