Vodafone and 3 will waive a month’s worth of mobile bills of customers in 25 of the worst affected areas in the current Queensland floods.
The move is part of what the two telcos are calling a relief package, and which also includes extended payment periods, prepaid credits and other financial assistance on a case-by-case basis for other areas in Queensland, NSW and Victoria affected by the present floods.
Loan handsets are also being provided to stores in flood-affected areas of Queensland and are available to post-paid personal customers on a case-by-case basis.
The two telcos the waiving of fees was not tied to a lack of service due to the floods as, according to Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), the Vodafone and 3 mobile phone services throughout Queensland remained “largely operational” last week.
VHA said engineers were working to resolve the “few outstanding network repairs” in various disparate locations in the state.
The package comes as law firm Piper Alderman said it was “making enquiries” around the potential privacy breach of some 4,000,000 Vodafone customers and was considering including security breaches as a part of its current class action lawsuit.
As reported by Computerworld Australia the number of Vodafone customers participating in the action grew from 9000 as of 5 January to 12,000 as of 10 January.
On 13 January Vodafone said it had terminated a number of employees in the wake of its investigation into the alleged leaking of customer data at the weekend week. The telco has also confirmed NSW Police is investigating the issue.
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