Download Weekly: 200k users affected as Vodafone shuts email

Vodafone email shutdown angst 

Last Friday Vodafone said it would close its email service. The service is still used by more than 200,000 customers.

Vodafone plans to close mail accounts at the end of November. It will affect customers with Vodafone, iHug, Clear and Paradise email address among others. 

The company advised customers to switch to free mail accounts with either Google's Gmail or Microsoft's Outlook Mail. 

To help the transition Vodafone will continue to forward customer's mail from its addresses to new accounts so long as they remain Vodafone customers. That way customers will able to continue using their old addresses for other online services which require an email address. 

Mail closure blamed on spam

In a statement the company said it was quitting mail after problems with spam and delayed mail messages. Vodafone consumer director Matt Williams said customers had told Vodafone its email service was no longer delivering the experience they needed.

Within days Vodafone customers were airing grievances about the move on social networks and traditional media. Some pointed out that three months notice is not enough to make provision for a change. Others mentioned how difficult it can be to move large amounts of mail to another service provider, especially if they use their own domain name with a mail account. 

The story was dealt with at some length on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon show. A Vodafone business customer said he thought the move would cost him around $20,000. 

ISP mail problems

Vodafone isn't the first telco to have problems with email. Earlier this year Spark moved its customers from Yahoo to a service run by Auckland based SMX. Yahoo Mail was a thorn in Spark's side for a decade. Customers experienced high levels of spam and the service had two major security breaches. 

During the switch, Spark took pains to keep customers informed about changes and to provide them with plenty of warning in advance. 

It may seem quaint and old-fashioned to offer ISP email in 2017, yet for many customers, especially older users, it remains an important communications channel. 

Switching mail accounts can be trivial, but it isn't always, especially when there are domain names and vast message archives to deal with. 

While Gmail and Outlook are popular, they are far from ideal and only free in some circumstances. Business customers pay to get full functionality or a personalised email address. Meanwhile Google mines Gmail messages for information so it can target advertising at customers.

Vodafone world first 400gig fibre upgrade 

Vodafone says its new 400-gigabit per wavelength optical system is a world first. The company worked with CIena to build the system to carry live traffic across Auckland. 

It is part of a transport network boom taking place nationwide as telcos expand capacity to deal with increased demand on the back of streaming video and cloud computing which in turn is growing thanks to the nationwide fibre roll-out.  

Last year Spark installed a 200-gigabit fibre link into its optical transport network. That fibre linked the Spark Global Gateway in Takapuna in the north of Auckland to a core router in Papakura in South Auckland and was connected to the Southern Cross cable. In July, it added a similar link between Invercargill and Christchurch in the South Island.  

Vodafone technology director Tony Baird says his company’s investment will get the transport network in shape for today and ready for the future. He says: “It is an important step on the roadmap to 5G and for a stack of other exciting innovations across New Zealand’s sprawling fibre and high speed wireless networks”.

The upgrade means Vodafone can send up to 17TB of throughput over a single fibre pair, that’s the same as 700,000 channels of 4K TV streaming at the same time or more than 100 million phone calls.

Telcos named, shamed in CommComm consumer report

There was slap on the wrist for Vodafone and Spark in The Commerce Commission's annual consumer issues report. For the second year in a row the telecommunications sector was the most complained about industry. 

Vodafone topped the list being on the wrong end of 186 complaints. Spark wasn't far behind with 180 complaints. 2degrees had 88. Collectively the telecommunications sector racked up 603 complaints out of a total of 7270.

One in four of the companies was about incorrect billing and one in five related to additional fees for matters such as late payments, credit card use or charges for paper invoices. 

Getting worse

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the report is that the telecommunications sector is getting worse. The number of complaints were up by almost a third compared to a year earlier. 

This has lead to the Commerce Commission making telecommunications a priority in the next year. 

The Telecommunications Forum wasted little time responding to the report. CEO Geoff Thorn issued a statement pointed to Commerce Commission comments saying the level of complaints is, in part, down to the scale of the industry and the fact that people interact with its products every day. 

Thorn says the industry plans a number of moves to improve customer service. 

One is to improve the Telecommunications Dispute scheme. This is  a free complaints and mediation service for consumers and small businesses. It's paid for by the industry and customers are pointed at the scheme on their telecommunications bills. 

The TCF also intends to develop a more customer-centric code for fibre installation along with consumer education and adding metrics to measure customer service performance. 

Spark sweetens mobile offer

Spark has refreshed its mobile plans to roll-over unused data and voice minutes. It’s the latest step in a bidding war between Spark and 2degrees. To date Vodafone has kept its powder dry.

Under the new plans, Spark customers can roll over up to a total of 3.5GB of data or 500 voice call minutes from one month to the next. The roll-overs only last for 12 months and only apply when customers switch to new plans. Roll-over plans were first introduced by 2degrees. 

New iPhone brings eSim, possible return of buy-on-plan phones

Apple launched three new iPhone models and an LTE-enabled Watch. You can read more about them elsewhere; the story is all over the media. Hidden among the details are two features likely to have implication for carriers. 

First, Apple is moving to an eSim for the Watch. This is a tiny chip, about one tenth the size of a nano-Sim card. It is built directly into a device. Instead of being activated by a carrier, usually in a store, the eSim lets users pick a carrier from a drop-down menu. In the US carriers are allowing customers to add an eSim for $10 a month. It is already seen as eroding the relationship between a carrier and a customer. 

Second, the high price of the iPhone X, starting at $1800 and going all the way to $2100, could mean the return of customers buying phones on plans. 

The iPhone X will be available in New Zealand on November 3.