South Island earthquake

South Island earthquake – 11.30m, 9 September

Telecom’s services continue to stand up well in Christchurch and we continue to monitor the situation closely, given the potential for ongoing aftershocks to generate further network faults.

111 services are fully available and fixed line infrastructure is performing well, as are both Telecom mobile networks.

With the core telecommunications network in most areas operating normally, Chorus’ focus and efforts have shifted to the parts of Christchurch without landline and broadband services due to individual customer and cable faults.

Chorus is working as quickly as possible to get to these, and has brought in 100 additional people to help with ongoing restoration work.

Chorus is making good progress repairing cable faults, having already fixed over 40 damaged cables. Work is currently under way on a further 40 cables that have been damaged by seismic activity since Saturday.

There are currently around 400 individual customer-reported faults in the wider Christchurch area.

Chorus is asking local residents, who are still experiencing service disruptions, to contact their telecommunications service provider and report their fault so a technician can be sent out to assess damage.

Chorus’ network monitoring systems indicate a number of faults affecting phone and internet services in the city centre, but it has not been able to start work to assess or repair those faults because of safety concerns and Civil Defence restrictions.

Repair work in the CBD will also be impacted by the high number of buildings which have failed the initial Civil Defence assessment and need to be assessed by a structural engineer before they can be entered.

Telecom has made payphones in and around Christchurch free for local, national and mobile calls.

Telecom WiFi hotspots across Christchurch are also free, enabling people without internet access to use free wireless broadband and Telecom is also providing free call diverts for its retail customers who are unable to use their home phones.

Further updates will be provided as relevant.

ENDS

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