Wellington, Feb 22 NZPA - Alcatel-Lucent, Telecom's network partner, says its New Zealand chief executive Steve Lowe is leaving the company.

He will be replaced by Jyoti Mahurkar-Thombre, effective from March 8.

"Jyoti has more than 20 years telecommunications industry experience, and has driven next generation network rollouts for many of the largest and most progressive operators in the Asia Pacific region and around the world," said Rajeev Singh-Molares. "She understands our customers' priorities and we are looking forward to her personal contribution to serving our New Zealand customers."

In May last year Alcatel-Lucent said the launch of the XT network was the latest milestone in a successful partnership between it and Telecom.

The XT network crashed last month, leaving customers below Taupo unable to use their phones for up to three days. The failure is subject to an independent review.