Telecom network executive resigns amid ongoing XT outages

Tuesday 23rd February 2010

One of Telecom’s key executives responsible for its networks has resigned amid further XT outages, following the departure of the New Zealand chief of Alcatel-Lucent, which built the system.

Chief transformational officer Frank Mount handed in his resignation to the country’s largest phone company today, just four days after Alcatel-Lucent New Zealand chief executive Steve Lowe resigned for unexplained reasons in the wake of another outage at Telecom’s troubled XT network.

“In the interests of our customers, our team and New Zealand, I have regretfully accepted Frank’s resignation,” said chief executive Paul Reynolds in a statement. “CIO David Havercroft will assume the responsibility for all network and IT operations from today and CFO Russ Houlden will carry interim responsibility for our shared services operations and technology strategy.”

About 200,000 XT customers south of Taupo were affected yesterday after two major problems in December and January prompted the company to pay out some $5 million in compensation, as well as undertake an urgent independent review of the network.

Reynolds will front up this afternoon to make an announcement about the network.

As CTO, Mount was responsible for pushing company change for long-term growth and delivering Telecom’s new generation technology, according to the company’s website. He joined Telecom in June 2008.

The shares fell 0.4% to $2.35 in trading today, and have slipped 6.4% this year.

Businesswire.co.nz

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