RSE workers in Hawke's Bay became stranded after the Tutaekuri River burst its banks. Video / Talalelei Senetenari Taufale
Cyclone Gabrielle still has a sting in its tail but has already prompted queries about the resilience of New Zealand’s critical communications infrastructure.
The storm has cut off parts of the North Island, including sections of Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti/Gisborne and Wairoa, leaving them with no phone coverage.
The Telecommunications UsersAssociation (Tuanz) said the country will need to have a discussion about resilience, and think about practical steps to mitigate damage from natural disasters.
Tuanz chief executive Craig Young said it was widely assumed that in urban areas, if a freak weather event knocked power out to a cellphone tower, power would be promptly reconnected.
“It may be that the third party will have a better interest in ensuring the site stays up.”
Young said more discussion about different providers sharing sites was warranted.
He said cellphone users currently could not bank on another company providing service if their own provider was knocked out.
Cyclone Gabrielle has devastated State Highway 2 between Napier and Wairoa. Photo / New Zealand Defence Force
Another issue was around better fibre optic systems and building back-ups into the system.
He said in Gisborne, just one long fibre cable previously ran up from Hawke’s Bay.
Since then, another cable snaked around the East Coast and south to Gisborne, so the city was not depending on just the one line.
But in a catastrophic weather event, where both lines were impacted, a region could still be disconnected from the outside world.
Young said where new communications cables were being laid, it might pay to consider alternative routes instead of appending new infrastructure to an existing bridge, which could wash away in a flood.
The Telecommunications Forum (TCF) said Gabrielle caused power cuts, in turn triggering outages to cell sites.
“We’re getting batteries and generators out to mobile sites where we can and working with power companies to restore power ASAP,” the forum said this afternoon.
The TCF is an industry forum focused on resolving regulatory, technical and policy issues. Its members include 2degrees, Spark, Skinny, Vodafone and fibre companies.
Where there were fibre cuts from bridges being washed away or landslides, Chorus and others were working to restore those connections where possible, the TCF said today.
Equipment, including some satellite uplink capacity, was being delivered to Gisborne but communication would be limited to voice calls and text messages.
The TCF said Northland and Coromandel were also priorities, in areas where power went down, and work was underway to get generators and fuel to places in need.
In Wairoa and elsewhere, some people have been using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet network to make contact since the cyclone struck.
By early Wednesday afternoon, an estimated 554 cell sites were down nationwide.
He said damage was often through power being cut and back-up supply not lasting long enough.
Saarinen said more fibre optic circuitry and ensuring networks were interconnected would be a relatively cheap way to keep communications alive in a disaster, as long as power was available.
He said bringing power generation via solar and using local batteries could make a huge difference.
The telcos have said more technicians will be able to fix problems as the weather improves.
