johnr: Vodafone does not have a RNC in Newmarket

John

exportgoldman:

johnr: Vodafone does not have a RNC in Newmarket

John

Sorry I should have checked my notes, I mean the RNC which handles Netmarket Node B's... :-)

Oh, and according to this http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/30-someting-xt-sites-still-down-117767

Telecom have always planned to buy more RNC's. Looks like they tried to scrape by for the first period with only two RNC's and add more later.

ajw:

exportgoldman:

johnr: Vodafone does not have a RNC in Newmarket

John

Sorry I should have checked my notes, I mean the RNC which handles Netmarket Node B's... :-)

Oh, and according to this http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/30-someting-xt-sites-still-down-117767

Telecom have always planned to buy more RNC's. Looks like they tried to scrape by for the first period with only two RNC's and add more later.

Why not future proof the XT network from day one. You get what you pay for.

sbiddle:

ajw:

exportgoldman:

johnr: Vodafone does not have a RNC in Newmarket

John

Sorry I should have checked my notes, I mean the RNC which handles Netmarket Node B's... :-)

Oh, and according to this http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/30-someting-xt-sites-still-down-117767

Telecom have always planned to buy more RNC's. Looks like they tried to scrape by for the first period with only two RNC's and add more later.

Why not future proof the XT network from day one. You get what you pay for.

That's a very bad argument. You could ask the very same question of 2degrees who decided to primarily use point to point microwave for their site backhaul when fibre is the future.

In the business world money is not an unlimited resource. Many factors such as ROI and depreciation can be key factors.

ajw: Who is to say they are not going to upgrade their infrastucture at a later stage.

sbiddle:

ajw: Who is to say they are not going to upgrade their infrastucture at a later stage.

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Exactly. That's the reason why XT has 2 RNC's.

You were the one however saying that network should future proof from day one. Does that not apply to 2degrees?

ajw: Capacity issues should have been sorted out in the network specs.

JasonDarwin: What is the cost of a RNC?

Telecom has today announced a goodwill gesture worth almost $5m, following last week's outage to the XT mobile network.

The package, announced by Paul Reynolds today in Dunedin, recognises those 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.

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

“We felt that it was important to take a few days to ensure we do the right thing by our customers, recognise those customers who were most badly affected, and also develop a package that allowed us to give something back to the wider communities that were also impacted.”

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 in the affected areas will have the credits applied automatically to their accounts and do not need to take any action. 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.

“We do recognise that businesses in particular suffered severe disruption during the outage so felt that fairness dictated that we take an extra step for them,” he said.

Donation to lower South Island communities:

In recognition of the particular disruption caused in the lower South Island by the outage, Telecom will be working closely with community leaders and local councils to donate more than $250,000 to community projects across the lower South Island.

“We are committing to donating more than a quarter of a million dollars and we will work closely with the local communities to ensure this money is invested in projects that provide the widest possible benefits while also recognising the different aspects and needs of those communities.”

Dr Reynolds reassured customers that all possible steps are being taken to ensure the stability of the network.

“XT was built as a world class network and we are determined that is what we will give our customers. We will leave no stone unturned as we commence the independent review of XT to ensure we are giving New Zealand the world class network it demands and deserves,” he said.

sbiddle:

ajw: Capacity issues should have been sorted out in the network specs.

What capacity issues? Telecom certainly don't have capacity issues.

I'm not for one minute defending Telecom's network or saying XT is perfect. There are plenty of legacy hardware from the 025 days that still exist such as numerous sites such as omni masts that were not sectorised with the CDMA or WCDMA launch. Looking forward these will also create capacity issues for Telecom. Like RNC's issues however this are easily addressed as extra network capacity is required.

What I am commenting is people who are jumping of the "2 RNC's is not enough" bandwagon without presenting any evidence at all to back their claims.