Customers affected by the XT outage last week will be offered free calling, texting and data downloads in a compensation package expected to cost Telecom $5 million.

The package, announced by Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds this afternoon in a media event in Dunedin, is in two parts (see below) depending on how long customers were without service.

Customers will have the credits automatically applied to their accounts. Telecom will base the amount of credit it offers corporate customers and retail SME customers on their usage patterns four days prior, and the three days following, last week’s outage. Reynolds says that customers seeking compensation over and above that offered today can speak to Telecom “individually.”

In addition, Telecom will donate $250,000 to local charities in the region most affected –areas south of Timaru.

During the media conference Reynolds backed the decision to deploy Alcatel Lucent to build the XT Network and he says the $5 million compensation package is being paid for by Telecom, not its technology partner.

Details of the compensation package announced today are as follows:

Customers whose service was degraded on Wednesday 27 January:

• Prepaid consumer customers - $10 credit
• Postpaid consumer customers – One week's worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages
• Telecom Retail SME customers and Gen-i corporate customers – Two weeks' worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages

Customers whose service was severely impacted for up to three days between Wednesday 27 January and 10pm Friday 29 January:

• Prepaid consumer customers - $20 credit
• Postpaid consumer customers – Two weeks' worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages
• Telecom Retail SME customers and Gen-i corporate customers – Four weeks' worth of plan charges, including Telecom Extras, such as texting or data packages