Bug hits new year mobile messages
Orange promises full refunds over bug that caused hundreds of duplicate text messages to be sent
ORANGE has promised to refund customers who accidentally sent hundreds of duplicate text messages on New Year's Eve because of a bug in the system.
Several mobile phone users have discovered that their text messages to friends wishing them a happy new year were received many times over.
According to Le Parisien, some customers face bills of up to €400 because the error made them exceed their monthly text message quota.
The paper says some of the duplicate texts were accidentally delivered as multimedia messages (MMS), which cost 30 centimes each.
Orange said the bug had affected messages sent from the network to one other mobile operator, which it refused to name.
The firm said: "We have not yet found any cases of excessive billing, but that does not mean that it hasn't happened. If we find any examples of this, the messages will of course be refunded."
More than 350 million text messages were sent by French mobile phone users on New Year's Eve.
Meanwhile, Apple says it is working to fix a bug in the iPhone that caused the phone's alarm function to stop working on January 1.
The bug affects people who own a 3GS or iPhone 4 and have a recurring alarm set. One-off alarms were not affected.
