Vodafone, Spark & Chorus working together to restore service

Wednesday, 16 November 2016, 3:08 pm
Press Release: Spark NZ

Spark Update | Spark network

2.45pm

Spark restored mobile service to Kaikoura at 10am this morning. We’re working with Vodafone and Chorus to get broadband and landline back into town using Vodafone’s offshore Aqualink. If no problems are encountered, it is expected that landline and broadband may be restored later today or early tomorrow to Kaikoura. You can read more about progress in our joint release with Chorus and Vodafone below.

We’re still working on restoring mobile, broadband and landline coverage to people in Waiau. The fibre cable that allows all these services in Waiau has been buried under an 800m landslide, so we are working to get mobile signal into the town using a microwave link, that will connect the Waiau site to our network at the nearby cell site at Mouse Point.

Some people in the area around Clarence and south of Seddon won’t have mobile coverage, as two cell sites are down in the area. One of the cell sites, Weldcone, has been damaged; techs are currently working on diagnosing the work needed to get the site up and running. The other cell tower, Clarence, relies on a fibre connection running down the east coast that has been damaged and will take time to fix. Spark is looking at using a microwave link to a nearby cell site to bring mobile coverage to the Clarence cellsite.

Spark has teams of techs working all round the affected areas to get services up and running. Weather conditions (flooding, rain, fog and so on) make the work more challenging, particularly as many areas can only be accessed by helicopters, which require reasonable weather to fly.

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