Telecom red as mobile service fails

Telecom is counting the cost to its reputation as a world technology leader after an embarrassing collapse of its mobile phone network.

The company would not say how many of its more than one million 025 mobile customers were affected when a software upgrade failed and caused random outages between 7 am and midday yesterday.

"It's very difficult to say because it was intermittent and in different parts of the country," says Telecom general manager, mobility, Lorraine Witten.

Telecom had earlier estimated that 500,000 were hit - all prepaid customers and up to 60 per cent of those on contracts, Ms Witten said.

People trying to call from their phones got a busy signal or a message saying it could not proceed.

The network collapse also led to a confusing day for the New Zealand cricket selectors over what team would take the field for the third cricket test against South Africa.

Selector Ross Dykes was surprised when he heard on radio yesterday morning that Northern Districts batsman Hamish Marshall had come into the test side in place of Craig Spearman.

He had discussed the team selection with chairman of selectors Sir Richard Hadlee on Thursday night and believed the side would be unchanged.

But Sir Richard had received a late-night call from coach David Trist, during which they discussed the issue and decided to select Marshall.

Phone calls to the other selectors went unanswered because of the fault, so they had to be surprised by the radio news.

Another affected was Albany builder Derek Kostelijk, who said every call he made to an 025 phone was answered by an engaged signal.

Unable to leave any voice-mail messages, no one was able to ring him for nearly six hours.

Telecom said one of its suppliers, Ericsson, had been loading software into the network, which was then hit by a bug.

Ms Witten said: "I'm pleased to say we've isolated that and we've identified what the issue is and the service is stable."

She apologised to customers and said such problems were rare. But she would not be drawn on the possibility of compensation for customers unable to use their phones.

The mobile fault continues a bad week for Telecom.

The e-mail system of its internet service provider Xtra crashed from 7 pm on Tuesday to 5 pm on Wednesday, leaving messages bound for 150,000 customers stranded in cyberspace.

- STAFF REPORTER, NZPA