Telecom is compensating around 150,000 broadband customers following a network upgrade for TiVo that resulted in slow speeds and billing errors.

Telecom spokesperson Emma-Kate Greer says that a “broadband usage meter error” was introduced into the system during a network upgrade to launch TiVo by technology partners Juniper in November. As a result some customer plans were incorrectly shown to have exceeded their data caps and their broadband speeds were throttled or they were charged for overuse.

In early December, Telecom was alerted to the problem by customer complaints and comments on the Geekzone website. Upon investigation Telecom discovered the fault, which had not been picked up during testing.

Greer says Telecom decided to compensate all customers who were shown to have overrun their data cap during the affected period. That’s around 150,000 of the more than 500,000 Telecom broadband customer base.

“We are of course ensuring that no customer is left out of pocket by this - including refunding all overage charges during this period and credits to cover those customers who may have been incorrectly slowed for hitting their data limit. In addition, all impacted customers have been sent a letter informing them that we will be doubling their data through the 15th of January,” she says.

The Herald on Sunday reported that customers were sent a letter on 23 December informing them of the compensation.

Greer was unable to say how much to mistake will cost Telecom, nor whether it will be passed onto Juniper.