In this opinion piece, Leisa Epplett, Spark’s group sales enablement lead, explains why the company is moving forward with the new 4G tower in Havelock North.
If there was ever a time to remind us just how important it is to have a good, reliable phone and internet connection, it was during New Zealand's latest Covid-19 lockdowns.
When delta plunged our team of five million into lockdown for the second time, our telecommunications systems once again stepped up – managing an unprecedented surge in demand – as New Zealanders continued working, learning and connecting from home.
While lockdowns are unusual, the increasing demand for connectivity is not something that will fade away once Covid-19 is behind us. At Spark, we see a 40 per cent increase in demand for data every single year and, to cope with that demand, we invest over $100 million in our mobile network each year.
Havelock North is no different. I was born and raised in Hastings and have lived here for almost 20 years. It's been amazing to see first-hand how Havelock North has grown from a quiet village to a home of choice for families and businesses, and a hub for innovation.
We are now at an inflection point. The area's existing cell towers are at capacity – meaning we can't take on any new wireless broadband customers nor offer our not-for-profit broadband service Skinny Jump to those who need it.
It also means the service for our existing mobile and wireless broadband customers is degrading. Some are experiencing slower speeds than they should be and are struggling to stream a video or jump on a Zoom call without buffering.
We've also heard from customers that their call connections are being affected. For example, Monique Buurmans has told us her local business, Monique Driving You – which provides transport services to many vulnerable members of the community – is having calls drop out about 50 per cent of the time.
Monique and her colleagues spend half their time on the road and rely entirely on their mobiles to receive transport bookings. The dropped calls mean they're either ending up in a voicemail loop with their customers or, if the customer is calling from a hospital or medical practice, they don't have a number for them. So they end up hoping they call back rather than book another transport provider.
A cell tower only has so much capacity it can share between the people who use it – either for calls on their mobiles or for internet access via wireless broadband (which connects you via the tower instead of fibre or copper in the ground).
This is why we need to build a new cell tower in Havelock North. Don't let the word 'tower' fool you – we are just replacing a street light with another one that has the addition of a thin cylinder to the top, like the one pictured.
Unfortunately, after many months of extensive consultation, a small group of residents continues to protest the investment. While we technically don't need to consult on builds like this (critical telecommunications infrastructure can be built without consultation under National Environmental Standards) it is our practice to do so. We want to be a welcome part of the communities in which we operate – and it is fair enough that people have questions about new infrastructure in their neighbourhood.
The residents raised two key concerns – the aesthetic of the tower and the safety of the next generation of mobile technology, 5G.
To be clear, we are only building a 4G site in Havelock North, but claims that 5G is dangerous are not supported by mainstream scientists and, to date, no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposures to wireless technologies that comply with New Zealand limits. We've met with residents multiple times to share the thousands of studies into the safety of telecommunications networks.
In New Zealand, the Government regulates radio wave exposure to 50 times lower than the point at which they could have any impact on the human body. On top of this, Spark cell towers emit just a tiny fraction of what's allowed under the standard. The World Health Organisation, our own Ministry of Health, and the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor have all reviewed the evidence base and agree that there is no impact to health from cell towers at these low levels.
In terms of aesthetics, we have committed to investing in a higher-priced design to help disguise the tower's antennae in a tidy slim cylinder atop a light pole.
We have also scoured the area for an alternative location but, unfortunately, there isn't one – unless built near another residential address. Location options are limited. To relieve congestion off existing sites, it has to be built where it can create a coverage footprint that overlaps with the coverage created by the existing towers. If we don't get that right, we'd need to build more than one site.
It also needs to comply with radio frequency regulations, have electricity available, avoid interference from things like other cell towers, trees, buildings and hilly terrain, as well as meeting all requirements under the Resource Management Act, including allowable pole height.
So this leaves us in the undesirable position of moving ahead with the build despite the opposition of residents who live nearby – or walking away and letting connectivity continue to degrade for the rest of our customers in Havelock North.
Spark's purpose as a business is to help all of New Zealand win big in a digital world – and Havelock North simply can't win big if its businesses, students, and residents can't connect. So we will move forward and we hope the community will understand this decision and support our investment in the future of Havelock North.