XT. Telecom and the Govt
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:00 am by David FarrarI tweeted last night that I felt very sorry for the many Telecom staff, as their XT network suffered another outage. It must be galling to see the company you work for get so damaged by outages that cause so much disruption. It’s probably like working for National in Parliament in 2002, which is why I can empathise!
A friend responded:
sorry David, but this chicken has been waiting to come home to roost for a while…you can’t outsource your maintenance, technology, customer service etc and expect to retain the core that makes a company strong enough not to fall into this sort of morass
And that’s a fair point. I recall one ex Telecom staffer semi-joking to me that I had to understand that Telecom wasn’t an IT company, it was a law firm that had contractors provide telecommunication services 
Now Ernie Newman at TUANZ has called for possible Government action:
“Telecom needs to do something drastic to assist the customers it is repeatedly letting down,” said chief executive Ernie Newman in a statement.
“If it doesn’t, then it may be time for the government to step in as a national economic issue. This cannot be allowed to go on”
My first response to the call for Government action is to imagine Steven Joyce in builders shorts and a hard hat on a tall ladder at the top of a mobile phone tower, and he’s whacking something repeatedly with a spanner.
More seriously, I don’t see these outages as critical as if they had occured on the fixed line network, or the DSL network.
Telecom has a near monopoly on the final mile copper loop. If those networks go down, it can affect everyone in NZ, regardless of choice of provider.
But we have two and a half mobile phone networks in NZ, which are not dependent on the same infrastructure, and one can establish a presence on a competitor within a few hours, plus have number portability to keep numbers.
I’m not advocating that XT customers mass migrate – individual customers will make those decisions based on how many more outages there are, and what guarantees and/or compensation they get in future. But the presence of Vodafone and 2 Degrees means that customers do have options, if the frustration gets too much for them. And that knowledge that they may lose current and future customers will be providing the best incentive to Telecom (and its contractors) to get things right.
So I’d rather the Government doesn’t jump in at this stage. I’d have a different view if the outages were in one of the areas where they are a virtual monopoly, but this is not the case with the XT mobile network.
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- The Telecom Split
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:17 am
Telecom has a monopoly on regional mobile broadband with its XT network. Vodafone’s network is expensive and shit (cities only) and 2degrees doesn’t have broadband at all as they’re not after that market.
Vote:The XT network had all the potential to be as good as the Telstra 3G regional network, but they fucked it up. What a surprise and welcome to New Zealand.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:12 am
“I don’t see these outages as critical as if they had occured on the fixed line network, or the DSL network”
I call b*s* on that one – these days a lot of people rely totally on their mobile, and there are numerous parent/kids who rely on their mobiles to communicate with each other e.g with regard to picking up from after school activities.
This network was touted as a world-class network – recent events have shown that it simply is not.
[DPF: You miss my point. I never said the disruption was not as severe. I said it is possible to change providers very quickly and easily]
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 8:49 am
I was sitting at sydney airport yesterday, around 7pm NZ time. couldnt send emails or txts from my blackberry.
im surprised an outage over here affected me while i was roaming? weird.
id still rather be on a network that has outages than go back to vodafone. living on the shore, i couldnt use my vodafone as an actual phone. worst reception i ever experienced. almost every call dropped out.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:12 am
Dime: there are only 2 exchanges – one that looks after the north down to Taupo and one south of that. The outages have mostly been in the southern one so roaming is fine since you’ll be going through an overseas exchange.
But back to DPF… “maintenance” might be outsourced, but the same people are doing it. Telecom rolled their technical staff into ConecTel, which then was sold to Downer and is now Chorus branded – but they’re all the same people and have been for years.
More likely is that this technology is cutting edge. Telecom, being desperte for an edge over vodafone, spent big on the latest gear. My guess is that no one’s built a network like this one before and that makes finding faults just that much more difficult.
But coming back to my previous point – when stuff is this new, how exactly does it help if you have your own staff working on it? Knowing how dial phones worked back in the ’80s isn’t exactly going to help with this stuff.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:16 am
The free market will punish Telecom over this event, no need for any interference from anybody else.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:17 am
It’s typical that many NZ’ers first instinct is to run to Nanny Government for help.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:19 am
mike hoskings is a bit over the top. another hissy fit like this morning and i will be switching station.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:25 am
1. A service provider failing continuously provide a contracted service to its customers is serious
2. As has been noted, many people rely wholy on mobile comms these days
3. Many people are not free to simply switch providers at the drop of a hat as you suggest due to a) 12-24 mnth term contracts that have become the norm to protect against churn with the introduction of 2degrees 3G this year b) the cost of having to re-tool with a WCDMA compatible handset c) all the supply chain mumbo jumbo if you are corporate
4. The question must be now raised as to whether TC has now failed to deliver a contracted service fit for purpose wrt the consumer guarantees act and contract law-any lawyers care to comment
5. The real number of network failures, wonder what they are. As an XT data customer my experience is that the network has been poked since Dec when I joined with down times of approx 15 mins at lunchtime and dinner time the norm each day presumably whle hardware is rebooted. I bought an external high gain directional multifrequency antenna as well so no poor signal excuses.
6. Nah, we don’t need any regulation of termination rates because TC and VF will do the right thing…pigs arse they will.
Get the big fucking stick out Minister.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:34 am
Oh, in case anyone from TC is reading this: I’m on an open contract with no term and as soon as I can arrange other means of data connectivity you can stick XT, unless you sort things out a) technically b) incentivise me to stay a customer.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
Unlike 2 degrees, Telecom never built a back up – considered it wouldn’t be cost effective. Wonder if they still think that as they surely must be haemorraghing customers
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:39 am
DPF – “I never said the disruption was not as severe”
No, you said that you “don’t see these outages as critical…”. If a landline goes out and you are at your desk, you probably have a mobile as back-up. If you’re waiting on a deserted sports field or bus stop and your mobile doesn’t work, you’re stuffed. How many phone booths do you see around thes days?
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:42 am
Using the logic of providers/networks we have 3.5 in NZ.
Telecom XT
Telecom CDMA
Vodafone
2 Degrees
The outages are only on XT and not the CDMA network which has far larger number of users.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
As I said in my blog this morning — Telecom has created a new word for the mobile communications lexicon: The “notwork” — which is what you get when your fancy new uber-tech network doesn’t work.
Telecom does carry some responsibility for the current situation but surely we can’t forget that Alcatel Lucent sold Telecom a pig in a poke with this new technology. Telecom must have relied on promises made by A-L and known they were taking a risk – but ultimately it’s a joint failure.
Is it mere coincidence that the NZ head of A-L has just announced he’s stepping down?
And how much of the decision-making process is based on “best for the company” versus “best for the individuals making the decisions” I wonder. I sure hope things have changed since *I* was a decision-maker at Telecom.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 9:59 am
Telecom pushed prices down to the extent that Alcatel employed low quality and hence low paid ( and hardly English speaking) people to build the network, this is a fact. Paul Reynolds should resign. It is okay to negotiate for the best price but Telecom went well beyond that and made it difficult for the supplier to maintain quality which is what was compromised and hence the result.
Yet, Telecom has the cheek to employ teams of highly paid IT contractors and Management consultants and make recruitment firms rich as a result at the expense of their customers.
It Paul Reynolds would have done this to BT customers he would have been fired.
Vote:February 23rd, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Serge,
Alcatel signed the contract and if they wanted to drop trousers on their reputation and bottom line they should take one up the jacksey and honour their obligations, if its really that simple and not another one of A-L’s ‘special’ arrangements.
Vote: