Vodafone has little reason to gloat as Telecom’s 97% XT coverage claim drifts on to the Commerce Commission’s radar.

In October, the commission brought a case against Vodafone under the Fair Trading Act.

The prosecution revolves around a series of historic marketing claims made by the telco, including:

1) The size of Vodafone’s mobile phone or 3G mobile phone network between September 2008 and February 2009;

2) The extent of the coverage of Vodafone’s wireless broadband network, made in Vodafone’s ‘broadband everywhere’ marketing campaign between October 2006 and April 2008;

3) The availability of a $10 free airtime credit for those customers who registered their details on Vodafone’s website between May 2007 and September 2008;

4) The cost of using the Vodafone Live mobile internet service between February 2007 and August 2008; and

5) The cost of using Vodafone’s $1 per day casual data charge for Vodafone’s mobile internet service between July 2008 and November 2008.

This afternoon, a Commerce Commission spokeswoman said the case was still live.

The two parties are due back in court on April 19 for a status hearing.

If found guilty, Vodafone faces fines of up to $200,000.

Vodafone has told NBR that it moved quickly to resolve all issues once customers or the commission brought them to its attention.

The Commerce Commission spokeswoman stressed that the watchdog is still at a very preliminary stage of gauging whether it needs to access if there are issues to investigate over Telecom's 97% coverage claim for XT.  

Telecom used the claim during the launch of its new mobile network and for months after, but voluntarily, if quietly, withdrew it in the New Year.

The commission will comment further on the XT coverage issue later today, or Tuesday.