Golden Bay residents call for investment to future-proof emergency phone line

RNZ News

a day ago

Tasman was hit by heavy rain last month.
Photo:
RNZ/Mark Papalii
A group of Golden Bay residents want to see government investment in the region's communications network, so residents have reliable access to the 111 line during emergencies.
Project STRIM (strengthening telecommunications resilience in Mohua) was set up by a group of Golden Bay residents after damage to the fibre optic cable that runs along State Highway 60 in July, resulted in a day long outage where residents were unable to call 111.
Founder Axel Downard-Wilke said it was after that outage he posted about his concerns on social media and said the community should do something to improve its resilience, which led to the group's formation.
"It's really a life or death situation if you need to make a 111 call, it's no good driving to a community hub where there's a Starlink system, you need to be able to use your phone reliably so we need a backup system," Downard-Wilke said.
"The other thing of course, is when the Alpine Fault goes no technician can drive their van over with all the specialist equipment that's needed to find faults and fix them."
He said the group wanted to see a feasibility study done and Crown funding set aside to future-proof the communications network, as had been done on the West Coast.
In 2023, the government spent $435.4 million on a connectivity package for Westland with 118km of fibre laid between Te Anau and Milford Sound to improve resilience and connectivity.
At a Tasman District Council meeting on Thursday, Downard-Wilke asked the council to send letters in support of a scoping report and funding for a more resilient system to Government ministers, Chorus and Civil Defence.
Golden Bay is currently serviced by a single fibre optic cable that runs between Motueka and Tākaka. During bad weather on 3 July, the fibreoptic cable at Uruwhenua Bridge on State Highway 60 was severed, knocking out connection to about 1100 households.
The cable was thought to have been damaged by a slip, but it was later revealed that rats had chewed through it.
Downard-Wilke said it wasn't the first time such an outage had affected the community.
In September 2023, the cable was accidentally severed by contractors and in August 2022 a slip at Birds Hill took out the road connection and the fibre optic cable with it.
While other parts of the country were reliant on a single fibre cable, Downard-Wilke said he thought Golden Bay was the biggest community in the country that relied on a single cable, and was vulnerable to failures.
"Whoever thought that having a system with a single point of failure is a good idea. I don't know what they were thinking.
"If that goes, nothing goes."
A large washout across a highway during extensive flooding and heavy rain in the Nelson Tasman areas.
Photo:
Supplied/ Nick Smith
Telecommunications Forum chief executive Paul Brislen has said the key was to have multiple different types of networks (fibre, mobile, fixed wireless connections and satellite) so there wasn't a single point of failure.
He also said telecommunications network companies were doing work to ensure cities were connected by a loop, instead of a point-to-point connection, so if half the cable was knocked out, traffic could be connected via the other side of the cable.
A Chorus spokesperson said a second fibre optic cable for the Tākaka and Golden Bay area was not feasible as there was only one point of entry, it would follow roughly the same route and be exposed to the same risks.
It said a second cable laid on a different route would face challenges due to the geography and topography of the area and would require significant funding and considerable feasibility work.
The spokesperson said Chorus was aware of several regions connected to the fibre network via a single cable, some with larger populations that Golden Bay, and that came with risks that were actively managed.
"We have robust monitoring and assurance processes in place to respond swiftly to any service disruptions, particularly those caused by adverse weather or natural events."
An example of some of the widespread damage to roads and infrastructure in the Nelson Tasman areas.
Photo:
Supplied/ Nick Smith
Golden Bay Community Board deputy chair Grant Knowles said the July outage was concerning and the inability to call 111 took was a shock to many.
"I think it was a surprise to people that they couldn't get hold of emergency services or the chemist, for instance, couldn't let people know that they had a prescription to pick up, it was quite a broad problem."
Tākaka residents then received an emergency alert during heavy rain on July 11, warning them to expect flooding and to be prepared to evacuate and Knowles questioned how people would be informed of alerts if there was no mobile coverage.
The town's population grew significantly over summer, which was often when it experienced heavy rain and slips which could knock out the cable as had happened in 2022.
Knowles said the region remained vulnerable during weather events and natural disasters and there was an urgent need for a backup communications system.
He hoped the government would take the community's concerns, seriously.
"It needed to be there yesterday, I mean, it should never have got to this point."
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