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.