ACCC won't advocate Vodafone contract walkout

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel has slammed reports that the consumer watchdog would support Vodafone customers walking away from their contracts.

Radio 3AW had reported comments attributed to Samuel that there "could be a case for people to walk out on their contracts" if the regulator first heard their stories about poor experiences on the Vodafone network.

Samuel slammed the report in a brief conversation with iTnews this afternoon. A formal statement was expected to be made public shortly.

"I said the exact opposite," he said.

"We do not endorse consumers to walk away from contracts. It's just nonsense.

"We say consumers have to approach Vodafone. They [Vodafone] expect customers to approach them about problems with the service.

"There's no way we would ever advocate [customers just walking away]."

Vodafone has been under sustained pressure from customers after weeks of dropped calls and slow data speeds.

The carrier blamed a "software fault" for the issues on its 3G network and claimed the issues were resolved.

It suffered an unrelated transmission outage in Western Australia last weekend that cut services for three hours in that state.