Results from an Otago Chamber of Commerce survey being undertaken this week are likely to contain bad news for Telecom as members vent their frustration and anger about continued interruption to their mobile phone coverage.
Although the survey only started yesterday afternoon, chamber chief executive John Christie said an early strong response had been observed.
Half of those who had replied said their businesses had been affected by the four XT mobile network outages since December.
Some businesses could measure the amount of lost custom and, for some, the loss was significant, he said.
About half of the early respondents were preparing to switch mobile phone providers, even if it meant a financial penalty.
"This is just the start of a quick poll, but if it is indicative of the wider community, Telecom has significant problems on its hands.
"Compensation might not be enough to stop them switching networks," he said.
At a conference for media and customers, Telecom chief executive Paul Reynolds announced a package of compensation measures for consumers and business customers.
For the next three months, all XT customers from Taupo southwards who chose to stay with XT would receive a loyalty credit to their accounts.
For consumers on account, that would amount to 33% of the monthly plan charge.
On a one rate 100 plan for $49.95 a month, a customer's monthly plan cost would reduce to $33 a month for the next three months.
Pre-paid customers would get a 33% bonus each time they topped up in the next three months.
For business on account, small and medium-sized business customers and Gen-i enterprise and corporate clients, the loyalty credit would total 50% of their monthly plan charges in the next three months.
Dr Reynolds could not give a total for how many XT customers had cancelled their contracts or had indicated they wanted to cancel.
Telecom staff would contact all customers who were considering changing providers to talk to them individually, he said.
Mr Christie said most people had been "pretty reasonable" about the outages but they were now angry.
