Telecom's 'Mr XT' quits

The string of XT failures has claimed its third major scalp.

Telecom's Florida-based director of mobile, the American Paul Hamburger (number 15 on NBR's tech power list) will not renew his contract.

Spokesman Nick Brown told NBR Mr Hamburger had chosen not to renew his contract when it expires on July 8 "for a mix of personal and professional reasons."

Telecom flatly denies any link between its director of mobile's departure and its various problems with XT, but has refused to make Mr Hamburger available for comment.

READ ALSO: Telecom embroiled in bid for Nigeria's Nitel

Mr Hamburger's departure was first raised as a possibility by Craigs Investment Partners analyst Geoff Zame in a February 23 NBR story (which also canvassed the probable departure of Telecom board member Ron Spithall, former head of Alcatel-Lucent Asia-Pacific. Telecom, so far, is standing firmly behind Mr Spithall).

AWOL: iPhone
Mr Hamburger - one of the prime movers behind Telecom's mobile network, and promoted by the company as "Mr XT" pre-launch – was controversial even before the recent string of four major outages.

Analysts frequently groussed about his failure - as Telecom's handset and roaming go-to-guy – to secure Apple's iPhone, despite Vodafone NZ's carrier contract being non-exclusive.

Supersize commute
Mr Hamburger also drew flack for his ultra-long distance commute, which saw him spend about two-thirds of this time with Telecom in Auckland, and the remainder at his home in Miami.

Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds recently defended the American's unusual arrangement, saying that even when Mr Hamburger was not in-country, he was "on the phone through the night".

Mr Hamburger was initially appointed in July 2008, with his 12-month contract rolled over in July 2009.

Mr Brown said Mr Hamburger would work out his notice until July 8, dividing his time, as usual, between New Zealand and the US.

His work here is done
“With the launch and consolidation of XT behind us, Paul has made the choice to move on from Telecom at the end of his current contract period," Telecom Retail chief executive Alan Gourdie said in a statement.

“Paul Hamburger led Telecom’s retail mobile operation, responsible for such areas as product management, plans and pricing, handsets and supply chain, retail promotion and sales, as well as roaming partnerships and services.

“Paul’s responsibilities did not include the building or management of the XT network infrastructure."

Scalps one and two
Telecom CTO Frank Mount (also an American) resigned on February 23 in the wake of the fourth major XT outage, with Dr Reynolds making it clear he was ready to accept the XT architect's letter.

Alcatel-Lucent's New Zealand country manager Steve Lowe fell on his sword the same day.