More XT woes last night

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Posted Tue 16 February 2010 @ 2:14 p.m. by Ernie Newman

Yet again, an outage in XT. Not so big this time - but big enough.

Big enough that if it hadn't been for the two big earlier ones it would probably have made the front pages. Small enough that it may disappear under the radar.

Telecom's statement says it affected SMS services, with a much smaller level of disruption to voice traffic. They attribute it to an unusual pattern of text traffic.

Maybe so. Maybe it was a flood of spam. But aren't mobile networks designed to manage that?

I really feel for the Telecom people over this. But I feel for their customers even more.

It MUST be fixed, and soon. I still haven't found an example anywhere in the world of a mobile network experiencing teething problems on such a scale.

Categories: Broadband | Wireless carriers

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3 comments

  • Grant says:

    Ernie, I have seen you on TV1 news recently, with regards to the XT outages. You have said, if your XT phone goes offline "then simply buy a Vodafone or 2 degrees SIM card to allow you to make calls & send txt in the meantime" or words to that effect. However, you did not mention, that Telecom's Network is 850Mhz UMTS with 2100Mhz UMTS in the main cities for extra capacity. Whereas Vodafone's Network is 2100Mhz UMTS in the main cities & 900Mhz UMTS in Rural areas. So - for people living outside the main centres, your solution would not work on an XT phone & you should of made this clear in your statement. Perhaps next time there is another XT crash (which there will be) you could be more specific?

    Added: 20 February 2010, 4:14 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

  • Ernie Newman says:

    Thanks Grant - I've had similar feedback from others. I agree the solution is imperfect and depends on the type of phone and the location, but my understanding is an increasing proportion of phones on the market cover multiple bands. Can anyone help me with some details around this? I know my own Blackberry can work on all three networks, at least around Auckland. I take your point but on TV its seldom possible to add every little detail.

    Added: 21 February 2010, 11:21 a.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive

  • Grant says:

    Thanks for the great & helpful reply Ernie. To the best of my knowledge - there are no Quad Band UMTS phones currently available in New Zealand. Quad Band meaning they support 2100 / 900 / 850 & 1900Mhz UMTS, I understand they are coming however, perhaps by the end of the first quarter of this year. With regards to your Blackberry, in Auckland it should work fine on all three networks, however, I doubt it work on all three once you leave the city & venture into the rural areas. It's also important not to confuse GSM frequencies with UMTS as well. Finally, if I may digress for a moment, the latest Blackberry Bold 9700 supports both 2100 / 900Mhz UMTS on the Vodafone Network - you might want to upgrade to this, I've heard it's a great phone! http://tinyurl.com/yeq8mnn

    Added: 21 February 2010, 4:30 p.m. Flag as Spam  |  Flag as Offensive
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