Telecom announces XT outage compensation

Donation to communities and credits to customer accounts feature

Describing it as a "goodwill gesture", Telecom today announced compensation for customers who lost service during the company's massive mobile network outage last week.

Worth almost $5 million, according to the company, the package announced by Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds in Dunedin this afternoon recognises customers who lost service during the outage but also makes "a meaningful donation to those South Island communities that were most heavily disrupted by the outage", Telecom says.

“We have aimed to make the goodwill gesture as comprehensive as possible, while being fair, transparent and equitable,” said Reynolds.

The credits apply to all XT customers based in areas south of Taupo to the bottom of the South Island who were impacted by the outage. Customers will have credits applied automatically to their accounts and do not need to take any action, Telecom says.

Both prepaid and postpaid consumer customers will receive a text message advising that they qualify for the credit.

Prepaid customers will have the credit applied to their account automatically by the end of February and postpaid customers will receive their credit on their next month’s billing.

Customers whose service was degraded on Wednesday 27 January:

— Prepaid consumer customers - $10 credit
— Postpaid consumer customers - one week's worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages
— Telecom Retail SME customers and Gen-i corporate customers - two weeks' worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages

Customers whose service was severely impacted for up to three days between Wednesday 27 January and 10pm Friday 29 January:

— Prepaid consumer customers - $20 credit
— Postpaid consumer customers - two weeks' worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages
— Telecom Retail SME customers and Gen-i corporate customers - four weeks' worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages

“We make this gesture in recognition of the inconvenience and frustration the outage caused our customers, but we fully appreciate that what our customers most need is to have confidence that we are putting every conceivable effort into ensuring that the XT network delivers for our customers," Reynolds says.

Telecom will also be working closely with community leaders and local councils to donate more than $250,000 to community projects across the lower South Island.