Heads have rolled at Telecom New Zealand and Alcatel-Lucent following weeks of technical problems with the operator’s new HSPA network. It was announced today that Telecom’s CTO, Frank Mount, has resigned, effective immediately. “In the interests of our customers, our team and New Zealand, I have accepted Frank’s resignation,” said Paul Reynolds, CEO. “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.” Yesterday, the operator’s network vendor, Alcatel-Lucent, announced the appointment of Jyoti Mahurkar-Thombre as head of its New Zealand operations, following the resignation of Steve Lowe. Alcatel-Lucent didn’t specifically state that Lowe’s departure was related to the technical issues with Telecom’s network.

Telecom New Zealand is the country’s dominant telecoms operator and launched its XT network – based on WCDMA/HSPA technology – last May. The operator previously offered CDMA services. However, in recent weeks the XT network has suffered a series of major outages, leading Telecom to pay NZ$10 million in loyalty and compensation to customers. In a media briefing today, CEO Reynolds said the operator was taking “urgent action” in what he called a “difficult and bad time.” According to Dow Jones Newswires, Reynolds appeared to blame Alcatel-Lucent for the problems, saying the vendor had “let us down badly” and that Telecom had put it “on notice.” In a statement, Reynolds added that “Alcatel Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen has committed to providing the full global resources of his company to get these issues fixed.”