Telecom Media statement: Canterbury earthquake

See our New Zealand Earthquakes page for ongoing updates - infonews.co.nz

Our infrastructure has proven resilient overnight, however disruption to landline and mobile services in Christchurch continues, and widespread power outages mean large parts of the network are still working off backup power.

Overnight we have focused our efforts on restoring and maintaining cell sites in the CBD, so survivors trapped in the rubble who do have mobile phones can continue to keep in contact with rescue teams. All central city cell sites that are operational have been connected to generators to keep them running.

We continue to intensively monitor network capacity and performance, with a particular focus on 111 services and key emergency response sites.

111 services remain stable and available and any issues connecting to 111 are likely to be due to network disruption due to damage, power outages or congestion. People trying to contact 111 should try again if they experience issues connecting. 111 calls are being prioritised.

Mobile performance has improved as people heed calls to limit non-essential mobile use. Many network sites are working on back-up power and this back-up power is limited as it is reliant on generators and batteries, so prolonged mains power issues will mean more sites are likely to go down as back-up batteries and generators run down.

We have deployed two COW (Cell Sites on Wheels) to critical areas to boost mobile coverage and we are looking to deploy additional COWs from around the country. We are also deploying technicians from around New Zealand to assist in the restoration of telecommunication services in the Canterbury region.

Ongoing network restoration work will be subject to civil defence and safety requirements.

To minimise the stress on the network and to conserve back-up power we ask people to continue only using their phones for emergency calls. We are providing further mobile phone devices to rescue workers as they arrive in the region. It’s important that we maintain integrity of the network to enable them to do ther job. For residents of Christchurch, 260 payphones in and around Christchurch are enabled with free calling for local, national and mobile calls.

People without power in their homes will not be able to use cordless landline phones, as base stations require power. If customers have non-cordless landline phones that plug directly into the wall and do not require power, they should use them instead.

We will provide regular updates as more information becomes available.

Our thoughts are with the people of Canterbury.