British tourists who were expecting to be able to use the Vodafone service to keep in touch with friends and relatives while visiting Australia have been subjected to frequent mobile service blackouts over the holiday period and there are indications the problems are continuing.
According to Vodafone Australia, its UK roaming link -- leased from Optus -- succumbed to unusually high traffic loads brought on by the festive season.
"Vodafone is currently assessing this incident and is working with Optus to ensure that this does not to occur in the future," said a spokesperson.
Neither Optus nor Vodafone were prepared to place an exact number on how many mobile users were impacted by the service disruptions or for how long.
Vodafone said that Optus first reported the problems with the links on 30 December. However that appears to contradict the experience of Vodafone customers.
One Vodafone UK customers staying in Australia for the summer told ZDNet Australia she was unable to use the roaming service from Christmas Eve until December 30th, and was continuing to experience problems with the service today.
When she approached a local Vodafone store in the leadup to New Years' Eve fearing her handset was broken she was told that she was one of around 10 customers who had complained about the service disruptions.
Vodafone yesterday had no comments for customers and said that it was unable to consider compensation measures until its investigation of the incident with Optus was complete.
Would this problem also impact SMS between Australia/Netherlands? I am with Optus in Australia, and, for the past 2 months, no SMS I have sent to a Vodafone mobile in the Netherlands has been received, yet I can send to a Tele2 mobile in the Netherlands without any problems.