Phones in Ruatiti were still out yesterday afternoon, nearly a week after a lightning strike cut the system to up to 30 households.
The amount of damage to infrastructure in the area and further lightning strikes were hampering repair efforts.
"We have been working as hard as we possibly can to repair the fault but there have been a number of challenges, including further lightning strikes," Chorus spokesman Nathan Beaumont said.
"The initial lightning strikes that did the damage were so severe that the parts of the network were completely destroyed, including antennae, batteries and electrical equipment."
Chorus said staff had been dropped on site by helicopter yesterday in an effort to restore the network by the end of the day.