XT fails in Auckland but no plan for compo

Telecom's XT network failed again yesterday - this time Aucklanders were on the wrong end of the network's fifth outage in recent months.

But the company says because of the short duration of the outage there are no plans to compensate customers.

Thousands of XT phone users in Manukau, Auckland and Northland had issues with intermittent coverage when the network ran into problems with calling, text and mobile SMS data services about 9am.

Manukau electrician Ian Wiley told the Herald he had had occasional problems with the XT network since last year but it had never been this bad.

"We tried to dial out but there was no network coverage. A couple of times I tried to make calls but there was really bad reception and it would just drop out."

Telecom spokeswoman Katherine Murphy did not know how many customers had been affected by yesterday's problems.

She said the exact technical fault was unlikely to be identified because the problem was intermittent at individual cell sites and affected roaming mobiles individually.

Yesterday's glitch was the first significant problem with the XT network in the top of the North Island but comes after four serious outages in the South Island and the lower half of the North Island.

"I think it's also important to understand this issue was intermittent and solved within two and a half hours and it affected only a small part of the entire country," Ms Murphy said.

She said previous compensation was for customers south of Taupo who endured repeated problems and a "really, really bad experience".

But Ernie Newman of the Telecommunications Users Association, himself a Telecom XT customer, said the latest glitch was inexcusable.