VHA fights back following PR nightmare as they deny privacy breaches.

Vodafone has written to customers apologising for the recent service disruptions that has plagued their operation in recent months. 

The interruptions to service which sparked a serious consumer backlash against the telco affected mobile service, including call failures, slow data speeds and poor reception. 

The interference has been blamed on network upgrades causing interference on other neighbouring sites causing chaos on voice and data transmissions. 

“As we worked through upgrading and adding new capacity into the network we experienced some software faults which added to a very frustrating network experience for some customers,” said Michael Young, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Hutchison Australia.   

“We want our customers to be happy with the network, service and value they receive from us,” said Nigel Dews, VHA CEO.
“We’ve been working hard to improve our network and service but still have work to do.”  

Their service offering has been improved drastically courtesy of new upgrades in the form of their new 850MHz network, including a new quad band mobile broadband modem launched last week.  

386 sites in the new network have been deployed, with a total of 1500 planned for the future, says VHA. 

In relation to 4G, which Telstra announced last week, the telco confirmed trials conducted last year achieved speeds of up to 73Mbps and “as devices become available we will be able to rollout LTE right across both of our 3G networks.”

To sweeten customers furious about the poor service provision, the telco has summoned 300 additional staff into the customer care division and have introduced call-back option, and in coming months will be able to contact Vodafone at any time they wish. 

However, the company has been dealt a fresh blow in relation to the other major scandal surrounding the company in recent weeks pertaining to the lack of protection of customers information online.

The Federal Privacy Commissioner found the company was in breach of privacy laws, stating “they had not taken reasonable steps to protect the personal information (of customers) it held.”

However, Vodafone insist the report confirms “that customers’ personal information was not publicly available on the internet.” 

“There were areas of data security that needed improvement. We have responded quickly, are taking action and have brought forward the implementation of a number of enhanced security measures to better protect all customer information, a number of which have already been completed,” they said in a statement. 

However, they won’t face legal or financial penalties as a result of the findings by the Commission.