Mass communications outage in Wairoa caused by ‘deliberate damage’

Wairoa township. Photo / Warren Buckland

A mass communications outage in the Wairoa district was caused by “deliberate damage” to a cable, resulting in the likes of Eftpos machines, mobile phone coverage and Wi-Fi services going down.

Schools, businesses and households were all impacted by the outage across Wairoa district on Thursday morning, in northern Hawke’s Bay, which locals reported started about 8am and lasted until 11am.

Wairoa District Council reported the “major communications outages” may have been caused deliberately.

“At this stage, it appears that deliberate damage was done to a main fibre cable near Napier, which has disrupted the communications network across Wairoa and the East Coast,” a council statement read.

Wairoa College principal Jo-Anne Vennell said teachers adapted extremely well during the outage, and classes continued as normal.

“It was probably more frustrating for our parents trying to call in,” she said, adding wifi and phone connections were down.

She said the school’s prize giving was being held in the afternoon so she was happy the outage had been resolved.

She said Thursday also marked the last day of classes for seniors, who were about to start study break ahead of exams.

Gemmells cafe co-owner Layton Gemmell said the outage had caused hassles with no Eftpos, phone connections or wifi.

“We did cash and we have a loyalty system so people collect points and some customers had enough for their morning coffee and things like that.”

He said he and his wife, Angie, were rapt the outage had been resolved ahead of the lunch crowd, meaning they could use Eftpos again.

Gemmell said he grew up in a time when there was no Eftpos or bank cards, so it was interesting to see “when technology craps out we go back to the good old cash - cash is king”.

He said the outage also impacted their sound system which was connected by wifi and meant they could not take bookings or contact suppliers via the phone.

A police spokesman said, about noon on Thursday, that they had not been made aware of any deliberate damage to a cable.

More to come.