The uplinks are being provided by a number of different satellite providers, Brislen said. NEMA has been flying in kits for Elon Musk’s Starlink service.
Thousands remain without mobile phone or landline broadband coverage in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.
Hundreds of cell sites are down across the North Island, with Gisborne and Napier hardest hit, but also outages in areas including parts of Northland, Auckland, the Waikato, Taupō and the lower North Island.
UFB network operator Chorus has also reported damage on its Taupō-Napier fibre cable, plus a second major cable on the East Coast. Efforts to locate and repair breakages are being hampered by the conditions
“Generators and fuel are the two key issues now while we wait for the power companies to bring mains power back online,” Brislen said in a 5.30pm Tuesday update.
This afternoon, Brislen updated that, “Where there have been fibre cuts from bridges being washed away or landslides, Chorus and others are working to restore those connections to where possible.”
On social media, Elong Musk’s Starlink-satellite-basted internet service, now eligible for a $2000 Government installation subsidy, has won praise for staying online while communications options have succumbed to the cyclone.
Spark, 2degrees and Vodafone have purchased 40-odd consumer-grade generators to fill in some of the need – these need refuelling every eight hours or so, which creates its own issues, Brislen said.
Napier, for instance, has enough generators but no fuel deliveries owing to roads being impassable.
Chorus reports damage to a number of fibre lines in and out of the region including the main connection between Napier and Taupō.
There is some cellphone and landline coverage available within the Hawke’s Bay but it is very intermittent at this point, Brislen said.
The telcos are working with NEMA to deliver satellite capability to the region. This should provide some connectivity out to the main network and allow limited calling and messaging while technicians work on the fibre lines.
Updates by telco:
2degrees
- 119 cellsites are offline mostly due to power cuts (from 126 down last night)
- Gisborne is offline for both fixed and mobile service due to fibre cuts
- Taupō has been partially restored
Spark
- 152 cellsites offline due to power cuts (from 146 overnight)
- 48 in Northland
- 17 in Auckland
- 6 in Waikato
- 23 in Central North Island and Coromandel
- 58 in Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Lower North Island
For Spark customers who are impacted, these options for assistance are available and more information is available here or phone 0800 800 123 and choose option 9.
Please only use this option if you’ve been impacted, so that those most in need are served first.
Affected mobile and broadband customers can access free data top-ups. Details here.
Vodafone
- Approximately 165 cellsites are offline (from 183 overnight)
- 43 in Northland
- 27 in Auckland
- 21 in Waikato
- 14 in Coromandel
- 61 in Gisborne/Napier/Hasings
Vodafone customers can see network status here.
Vodafone frontline teams can offer support including extra minutes, texts and data to help keep our customers connected.
If your fixed line broadband has been disconnected and you have a VF mobile connection, we will give you ‘Always Connected’ for free – seven days’ worth of data for your phone to use as a hotspot until services come back.
Rural Connectivity Group
Approximately 125 cellsites are offline (impacting all three mobile operators)
- 44 in Northland
- 11 in Auckland
- 70 Rest of North Island
(The Rural Connectivity Group is a joint venture between Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees formed for the public-private Rural Broadband Initiative.)
