Norsewood is big on its Scandinavian history, but its cellphone connection issues are frustrating for residents and tourists.
Norsewood is big on its Scandinavian history, but its cellphone connection issues are frustrating for residents and tourists.
Norsewood is facing an “unprecedented crisis” with its mobile phone coverage, according to Connect Tararua.
Last year, the town, home to 1600 residents, was left with little to no coverage following the vandalisation of a Spark tower.
There was also no coverage from other providers, says Connect Tararua spokesman andlocal business owner Phil Grant.
He says this poses severe communication challenges for residents and visitors.
In February, representatives from Connect Tararua, a local group advocating for community-driven communications solutions, brought up the issue in Norsewood at a meeting of the Tararua District Council’s community development and wellbeing committee, saying that businesses could be losing up to $15 million in annual revenue due to the problem.
Phil says the township also suffers from the “what no coverage, what sort of place is this!” feedback, which limits commerce in the town.
Norsewood, with its Scandinavian history and annual events such as the Viking Festival, attracts more than 30,000 visitors a year.
Monitoring shows Norsewood's cellphone coverage to be poor. Photo / Bevan Conley
Connect Tararua, using G-Net Track Pro, a wireless network monitor, drove all the roads around Norsewood during July this year, surveying coverage by OneNZ, Spark and 2-degrees.
