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It could take months before full mobile phone coverage is restored to Kaiwaka and the surrounding areas following the deliberate destruction of a Spark cellphone tower earlier this month.
Vandals unscrewed the supporting bolts and guywires on the 36-metre tall tower off Tain Road, south of Maungaturoto, on January 2, causing it to collapse and damaging the structure beyond repair.
Spark and Skinny customers across a wide area have since experienced lengthy breaks in coverage or intermittent service, and the provider has been deluged with complaints, despite installing temporary portable replacements at the earliest opportunity.
A spokesperson said the company was “incredibly disappointed” that someone had attacked a critical piece of infrastructure, leaving many people and businesses without mobile and wireless broadband, but said there was unfortunately no quick way of fixing it.
“We would like to assure the affected community that we are doing everything we can to get services restored.
Unfortunately, getting mobile towers up and running, whether temporary or permanent, is incredibly complex and can take some time – especially when it’s been taken down unexpectedly – so we are grateful for their patience and understanding while we work through this.”
Spark said the sabotaged tower was a particularly tall one, so while the company urgently installed a Cell-site On Wheels (COW) as soon as police investigations allowed, the signal from the shorter aerial was unable to reach as many customers.
“A second temporary site was deployed on Friday, January 21 to improve coverage further while we work to rebuild our permanent tower,” the spokesperson added. “We are currently monitoring to see if any customers are not being serviced by this second site and if so, what more we can do to get them connected.
“Unfortunately, we now need to carry out a full rebuild of our cell site, which is being prioritised.”
However, the spokesperson could not say exactly how long this would take, only that Spark expected it to be completed “within the next few months”.
“We know how important it is to stay connected, so we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will be automatically providing a credit to impacted wireless broadband and wireless landline customers, and we encourage mobile customers to get in touch with us directly to discuss their options.”
Meanwhile, Northland Police officers are investigating a second comms tower being targeted and damaged, this time in Waipu on Tuesday, January 18, and belonging to a different provider.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Huys said they were keen to hear from anyone who could help them with their inquiries into the attacks.
“Both incidents are concerning to Police and are being treated with urgency,” he said. “We are following a number of lines of enquiry, but would ask anyone with information on either of these incidents to contact police on 105, quoting file number 220104/9808.”
Information can also be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
