2degrees fixes three-day global roaming glitch

UPDATE July 5, 4.30pm: 2degrees says globla roaming is now restored for all customers.

---------------------------------------------------

UPDATE July 5, 2.30pm: 2degrees says it has restored roaming service for the Australia, the US, UK, and a number of Asian and European countries (see the full list on the carriers new network faults page here).

The company doesn't know what caused the problem.

"We are still working with our partners to investigate the cause," a spokeswoman said. "Our priority has been in restoring service."

Last week, CEO Eric Hertz said 2degrees now has 950,000 customers, with around 100,000 on contract plans.

---------------------------------------------------

Telecom fixes two-day global roaming glitch, 2degrees still working on it

UPDATE July 5, 9am: Telecom's global roaming glitch was fixed around 1am this morning, acting CEO Chris Quin told NBR ONLINE this morning (see end of story for 2degrees, Vodafone latest).

Mr Quin tweeted at 12.57am, "Good news just from team calls international roaming services restored, plan to let them stabilise overnight and review in the morning."

At around 7.30am, Telecom updated its network status with an all-clear.

Voice, text and data services, down since Tuesday morning, are back up and running for XT customers travelling overseas (2degrees said its problems began on Tuesday afternoon).

Telecom is using social networks to update customers.

What happened?
Asked if a specific partner or third-party provider was at fault, Mr Quin told NBR: "We don't have specific root cause finalised yet. The focus right now is on stability." An incident review would follow.

Yesterday, Telecom told NBR it was not sure if all customers were affected. One XT power user, Rod Drury, said he was in the US and could use his phone.

Another, Adam Jobbins in Melbourne, told NBR his XT service returned last night.

During the outage, Telecom advised customers overseas to use wi-fi service were possible, or buy a local provider's SIM card - arguably not bad advice at any time given the cost of global roaming, especially with data (although for calling they  involve the considerable inconvenience of losing your regular number).

2degrees, Vodafone latest
2degrees has also suffering global roaming glitches on Tuesday and Wednesday.

This morning, a spokeswoman told NBR, "We’re making some progress". 

An update is expected after a 2degrees conference call on the issue at 10am.

The carrier has set up a new web page for network status updates (here).

Vodafone also updated on it roaming problem. Core systems engineer John Reader told NBR, "There was a very quick outage Tuesday to Canada and the US but next to no customer impact."
 

Global roaming glitch cuts off Telecom, 2degrees customers

UPDATE July 4: 2degrees told NBR its customers have been hit by a similar global roaming glitch.

Like Telecom customers, they have been unable to make calls, txts or access data at times since yesterday morning.

There is no estimated time to fix the problem.

Vodafone said a similar issue on its network had been fixed.

"On Tuesday we identified a fault on one of our international links which meant some Vodafone customers roaming in the US and Canada may have had trouble with their service," a spokeswoman told NBR.

"Our engineers identified the issue very quickly and it was resolved overnight last night. Vodafone customers roaming in these areas are no longer being impacted by this issue."

Telecom "unaware"
Some Telecom customers are taking to Twitter to complain about their inability to call or txt home.

One was project manager Adam Jobbins, who tweeted from Melbourne that Telecom's help desk was unaware of the problem last night.

"I spoke to the Telecom roaming helpdesk last night around 10pm Melbourne time, after noticing my XT phone showing 'No Service'," Mr Jobbins told NBR this afternoon.

"After more than 10 minutes on hold before the call was answered, the agent advised there were no known issues with roaming, and walked me through some basic troubleshooting (to no avail). I was promises of a call back with an update sometime today, but I've yet to hear anything further."

Telecom boss: we'll work through the night
Wednesday evening, Telecom acting CEO Chris Quin tweeted, "Technology guys underway with a potential plan to address intl roaming issue, will keep you all posted."

Mr Quin's previoius tweet: "Intl mobile roaming issues continue, exec team in escalation meetings, teams will work through the night and advise when we have updates,"
 

A global roaming glitch means Telecom customers travelling overseas can't use their phones.

"An international roaming issue has been affecting customers overseas since Tuesday morning," a spokeswoman told NBR ONLINE.

"From yesterday, international mobile roaming customers may have been unable to receive or make calls and texts or access data."

The spokeswoman said Telecom was giving the issue highest priority.

However, it was not known when service would be restored.

The spokeswoman could not immediately say if some or all customers were affected.

The company is posting network status updates here.

On Twitter, Telecom described the problem as "intermittent". 

A number of Telecom customers seem baffled about what has happened and have taken to social networks to question or complain.

"A couple of my friends are using their Telecom Phones+Sims in Australia and suddenly yesterday they stopped getting service. Any ideas?" Christchurch man Michael Griffiths asked Telecom via Twitter in a typical query.