Telecom's troubled XT network failed in Auckland today, the first time Auckland has been hit by a serious outage but the fifth XT outage overall in recent months.
Service appears to have been restored around 11.30am.
A Telecom statement as 1pm advised that XT services in the north of the North Island, including Auckland, were running "as normal". "Some XT customers in that area experienced intermittent issues between around 9am and 12pm today," the statement says. "111 calls were monitored during that time." Telecom says the issues affected cellsites linked to one of the Auckland-based radio network controllers (RNCs). "The two Christchurch-based RNCs, and the second Auckland-based RNC and sites were unaffected," Telecom says.
RNC failures of various kinds brought XT down south of Taupo in February and March this year.
Telecom's service advisory page this monring stated that scheduled work was planned in the Far North, Kaipara, Whangarei, Great Barrier Island, North Rodney, Kaipara, Franklin, Tokoroa, Gore and Invercargill areas.
"This means there will be a planned loss of service during times when the network has very low use," it says, adding that if users have difficulty contacting emergency services from their mobile phones during this time they should use a landline.
There was no mention of work in Auckland.
Fairfax, a user of Telecom's XT network, notified staff this monring that it has been informed of intermittent issues with the Telecom XT mobile network in the North Island.
"Telecom engineers are currently working on this issue," the notice says.