Vodafone Criticised After Roaming Collapse in Aust
The collapse of Vodafone’s international cellphone roaming service in Australia for the past week needs to be taken more seriously, the Telecommunications’ Users Association says.
New Zealand customers roaming on the Vodafone Australia network have been unable to make or receive calls in the past week, because of a sharp rise in international cellphone use. Vodafone said that meant the issue was out of its hands.
Telecommunications Users’ Association chief executive Ernie Newman said Vodafone’s position was “unconvincing, unprofessional and unacceptable”.
International roaming was not a luxury but a core service customers expect.
“For Vodafone New Zealand to distance itself from what appears to be a disastrous mis- forecast of traffic by its Australian sister company just won’t do,” Newman said.
New Zealand customers expected the company to take ownership of the problem and give it the “utmost urgency”.
Cellphone connections in Australia for Kiwi business people had become a big problem with the Vodafone network off and Telecom customers no longer able to roam through the Telstra network as of this month, apart from on WorldMode phones, Newman said.
However, Vodafone New Zealand spokesman Paul Brislen said the phones could be quickly switched to use another network in Australia through their settings menus, if coverage was available. The prices for texts and calls were the same regardless of the network for most customers, he said.
The task should take only 15 seconds or so. However, customers who were unaware of the network problem may not have known there were alternatives they could use in Australia.
Vodafone could not send a text message to New Zealand customers in Australia informing them of the issue.
Brislen said Vodafone in New Zealand and Australia bought international capacity from supplier Optus.
He said it seemed that in Australia Optus had been “completely swamped” by international demand.
Brislen said it was not possible to buy more international capacity on Vodafone Australia’s network. The company would deal with claims of compensation on a case-by-case basis, he said.
One Vodafone customer, posting on the geekzone. co.nz website, wrote: “Roaming being down for one day is one thing, but over this period of time it can be considered a real inconvenience. And should customers have to change networks to try and get coverage?”
Meanwhile, from this month Telecom phones will not roam in Australia, after Telstra switched off its old CDMA network.
Telecom customers need to buy a $299 WorldMode handset to use in Australia or other countries around the world using a GSM network.
Newman said Telecom’s roaming service in Australia was in disarray because of its failure to prepare for Telstra’s technological upgrade.
——————–
(c) 2008 Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.