By Suzanna Kerridge, 6 August 2001 11:55
NEWS Swisscom is to bill Alcatel for the SFr30m (£12.3m) loss it experienced after a software bug - ignored by the supplier - brought down its Natel network of 3.3 million users for 10 hours in July this year. The software error resulted in the entire mobile network being rebooted. A spokeswoman for Swisscom said: "We started friendly discussions at the weekend to recoup what it cost us to compensate customers for the loss of service." She added that none of its customers who tried to make calls or send SMS messages between Thursday 26 July to Friday 27 July would be charged. In addition, Swisscom's 3.3 million customers have been awarded SFr5 (£2) worth of free calls in compensation. However, she refused to comment on whether the company was seeking compensation for the cost of fixing the bug or for the hours of lost business. The bug originated in the central computer system in Lausanne, causing commands to be processed incorrectly. The problem was exacerbated when the back-up system crashed only an hour after it started to bear the full load of the downed central computer. Due to the large number of users trying to make calls, the repair work had to be carried out in stages. At one stage the entire Natel network serving millions of customers had to be rebooted. Alcatel identified the software problem six days before the system crashed but failed to inform Swisscom, claimed a report in French Sunday newspaper Le Matin.
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