Telecom’s Reynolds apologises for XT outage

Telecom’s Reynolds apologises as shares decline as XT outage

By Paul McBeth

Jan. 28 (BusinessWire) – Paul Reynolds, the head of Telecom Corp., has been forced to apologise to customers after an outage on its XT network extended into a second day, sending share down 0.7% to $2.42 in trading today.

The chief executive of the country’s largest phone company was forced to apologise after the second major outage on the XT network in as many months hampered thousands of customers’ mobile phone services south of Taupo yesterday. The problem has continued to affect some 10,000 people in the South Island today, and Reynolds has called for an “urgent and independent” review of the network.

“I am angry at the recent outages that have affected part of the network, including the one currently affecting customers,” Reynolds said in a statement. “I apologise to our customers who have been inconvenienced, but also recognise that words are not enough. That’s why we are taking rapid action and I am determined to be up front and open on this.”

Telecom has been successful in migrating customers on to XT, with 242,000 people using the new network by the end of the first quarter from 149,000 in the previous period, even as it only attracted 64,000 new mobile customers. Still, a major outage in December affected more than 100,000 customers. Last May, the phone company was forced to increase its network filtering at an undisclosed cost to avoid a High Court injunction when Vodafone Group claimed XT was interfering with its own network.

Reynolds said they will look “closely” at compensation once they have addressed the problem.

The company’s stock has declined 2.4% this year, and has steadily dropped since closing at $2.59 on Jan. 8.

(BusinessWire)

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