The international roll-out of Nokia"s flagship Lumia 1020 continues apace, with pre-orders open in the U.K. and parts of Europe, as well as New Zealand and Australia. But there"s bad news for customers of Australian carrier Telstra, which has now cancelled pre-orders for the device.
Jason Cartwright from techAU reports that he received a call from Telstra apologising for the cancellation of his pre-order for the Lumia 1020, citing unspecified "Nokia software issues" as the motivation behind the decision. As Cartwright noted, this is likely to be an issue specific to Telstra"s network, since rival carrier Optus is continuing to take pre-orders on the handset ahead of its launch on October 1.
The bad news doesn"t end there, as Telstra has given no indication of when the pre-order book will reopen, giving little hope for customers hoping to get their hands on the device and its mighty 41-megapixel camera, unless they"re willing to switch networks or purchase the device at full price without a contract.
But there is some good news. Not content with leaving its customers with nothing more than a dry apology, Telstra is providing a free Nokia Lumia 520 to those who pre-ordered the 1020, as a good-will gesture. While it"s hardly in the same league as its bigger brother, the 520 is a great little handset, scoring very highly in our review.
That said, there"s something mildly amusing about blaming the cancellation on software problems with Nokia, and then sending customers a Nokia handset - but as compensation goes, it beats a $10 gift voucher.