About 8000 households in West Auckland were cut off from the internet following damage to the Chorus network. Image / Supplied
About 8000 households in West Auckland were cut off from the internet following damage to the Chorus network. Image / Supplied
Thousands of households across West Auckland have been reconnected to the internet following a major day-long outage.
Chorus confirmed the fault, caused by damage to multiple copper and fibre-optic cables, had been mostly restored by late last night.
“Repairs are largely complete with service expected to be restored forthe vast majority of affected customers in the next 30-60mins if they are not already back online,” a Chorus spokesperson said on Saturday night.
The outage began at about 5.30am yesterday, cutting off internet access to about 8000 fibre-connected households in Te Atatū, Henderson and Massey, as well as several coastal communities west of the city.
Describing it as a “one-off localised fault”, Chorus said earlier that the repair work was complex because of the location and number of damaged cables.
About 8000 households in West Auckland have been cut off from the internet until further notice after damage to the Chorus network. Photo / Chorus
“Our crews are working as hard as they can to ensure the impact is as short as possible,” the spokesperson said.
“We recognise how important connectivity is to people’s daily lives and appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we work to restore communications as quickly as possible.”
One resident affected by the outage said they didn’t feel the outage was being taken seriously.
“The outage was widespread and Chorus was made aware at 5.45am.
“They didn’t appear to do much about it until 2pm when traffic management was put in place.
“Technicians only arrived on site at 3pm.
“What I’d like to know is why it took almost 12 hours for technicians to start work?”
A Chorus spokesperson responded, saying “much of the diagnostic and restoration work we undertake happens behind the scenes and isn’t always visible to the public, so it can sometimes appear as though work hasn’t started when in fact a significant amount of activity is already underway”.
They said a technician was on scene at the nearest exchange before 7am on Saturday to identify the exact fault location, and field crews were on the ground at the site itself before 9am.
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