[LINK] Vodafone software problems risk public safety

[Saliya Wimalaratne]

On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 04:42:56PM +1000, Tom Worthington wrote:
> I wrote May 6 09:40:47 EST 2008 
> 
> This appears to be a systemic problem, not within the 
> Telecommunication Ombudsman's power to address. Vodafone could simply 
> respond to each complaint by sending a paper copy and offering a 
> partial refund, without fixing the system.

Hi Tom,

Yep. 

There _do_ appear to be numerous problems with the V billing system; 
problems which result in them being unable to satisfy their legal obligations
(see the ACIF Billing Code for what I'm talking about). 

> The ACMA <http://www.acma.gov.au/> needs to check if Vodafone is 
> complying with its license conditions.

I went through this, slowly and patiently (and painfully), with ACMA, 
the TIO, and Vodafone several months ago. The upshot of the entire discussion 
was that V _does_ have a problem; but they're not going to do anything about it;
it is in fact the TIO that has the stick for individual cases (but _only_
individual cases - they apparently won't force Vodafone to fix things); and
ACMA has basically no teeth apart from revocation of the carrier licence
(which isn't going to happen for _this_ particular reason). 

I must confess I never thought of linking the failing billing system to 
terrorism (I still think it's a bit of a stretch :) Let me know if that flies :)

Regards,

Saliya