South Taranaki cell tower turned on in time for festive season

South Taranaki mayor Phil Nixon (centre) with Whanganui MP Carl Bates (second from right) at the opening of the cell site at Pātea, with (from left) Pātea Community Board chair Jacq Dwyer, deputy mayor Robert Northcott, community board member Bronwyn Wattrus, land owner Dale Cook and Fortysouth chief executive Nick Clarke. Photo / Supplied

Mobile connectivity woes are a thing of the past for the South Taranaki town of Pātea.

A 30 metre cell site, built by Fortysouth, went live last month.

The company was granted resource consent in May.

Whanganui MP Carl Bates (National) said he visited a new shop in Pātea in 2023, and the owner could not receive payments because of a lack of connectivity.

“That reinforced an issue I had heard about on the campaign trail, and when I became MP,” he said.

“At that point, there were no plans to build a tower, so I started some advocacy, along with [South Taranaki] mayor Phil [Nixon], to make it happen.”

Bates said a public meeting was held in April 2024, and the Pātea Community Board collected “a whole lot of data”.

One NZ then committed to building the tower, and Spark NZ came on board to add its own equipment to it, he said.

“That commitment included having it operational by Christmas [2025].

“There were some challenges in the process, but they were able to turn it on by December 19.”

Nixon said there was 170km of coastline in the district.

“It’s had very little cellphone coverage, but we’re getting better,” he said.

“A new tower went in at Waiinu three or four years ago, and to have one at Pātea is brilliant.”

He said the people of Pātea had got behind the project, with Pātea Community Board member Bronwyn Wattrus going door-knocking to survey mobile connectivity.

“At this stage, One New Zealand and Spark can use the tower, and from what I understand, 2degrees will come on board as well.

“Finally, common sense has prevailed. Several providers can use one site.

“In the past, it was only one provider. New Zealand is too small not to share infrastructure like that.”

In July, Fortysouth chief executive Nick Clarke said the company encouraged “communities to proactively contact us” if they had mobile connectivity issues.

“Carl and Phil advocated very strongly for their community, and we are very pleased we could respond as quickly as we have,” he said.

Nixon said the new site had a radius of around 20km, meaning coverage went out to sea.

“There are some areas within our district where police have identified that their radios don’t even work,” he said.

“One was around the Pātea bar. For health and safety, and to work with search and rescue, we need this connectivity.”

Bates said greater connectivity was important for business, health and social services, and education.

“This was able to be achieved without a single dollar of ratepayer or taxpayer money, and I’m pretty proud of that outcome.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.