The XT mobile network crashed on Wednesday last week. It took one day to fix the problem in the North Island but three days for the far south of the country. More than 200,000 people have Telecom XT in New Zealand. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people in Otago and Southland could not call or receive calls between Wednesday morning and Friday evening last week. Some people lost business. Some people were angry.
Telecom said it was a hardware problem. Experts flew in from China and France to work with New Zealand technicians. The network was built by a French company earlier last year.
Now Telecom said they will pay compensation to people who could not use their phones. Those who lost the network for three days will get most compensation. People with pre-pay will get $10, individuals on a plan will get two weeks free and businesses will get four weeks free. Telecom will also give $250,000 to community projects in the South Island. These projects could be parks or festivals or anything to help the community.
Questions to think about
1. Why are mobile phones so important for some people?
2. Why is Telecom giving a donation for community projects?
3. What would you do with $250,000 to help your community? |