While we didn’t report on it yesterday, Vodafone also faced major network issues. Firstly starting in Western Australia, customers were unable to access data services via 3G and 4G. Customers took to social media like Twitter and Facebook to express their frustration at loosing data service – some quoting that mobile data was their only source of communication.
According to a press release from Vodafone, the service disruption was due to a transmission failure. While trying to restore the service at 1PM, the problem extended to customers nationwide as well. Not only did the nationwide outage affect data, customers reported that calls and SMS were also not working. Vodafone restored mobile services nationally at 4:10PM, except in Western Australia were data services remained offline until 6:30PM.
Vodafone’s Chief Technology Officer Benoit Hanssen today announced that all Vodafone customers will be receiving unlimited data all weekend to make up for the outage. “We know our customers had a less than perfect network experience today and we want them to know we’re sorry. We want to make good by offering them unlimited data access all weekend,” said Hanssen.
Vodafone customers will be able to enjoy unlimited data, regardless of their pricing structure or plan from midnight (AEST) Friday 20 June to 3:00am (AEST), Monday 23 June 2014. It is unknown if there are any terms and conditions or acceptable use policies attached to this, however, we have contacted Vodafone to confirm.
UPDATE 5:50PM: Vodafone have confirmed with TechGeek that the weekend is truly unlimited. You’ll be able to download to your hearts content. FAQs are available on the Vodafone website.
Vodafone Image: TK Kurikawa / Shutterstock.com