Selwyn Times: May 08, 2019

SELWYN TIMES Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Wednesday May 8 2019 3
News
Plough blamed for phone outage
• By Anan Zaki
A MOLE plough machine was
responsible for the biggest ever
outage to the district’s fibre
network.
About 2000 customers in Lincoln
and Tai Tapu lost landline
and internet connections for
more than a day due to the incident
last Tuesday at 2.20pm.
The fibre cable was damaged on
Weedons Rd, near Lincoln.
Fibre provider Enable said the
incident caused “significant”
damage to the
fibre line and
affected all
internet service
providers such
as 2degrees,
Spark and
Vodafone.
Said Enable
strategic communications
Daniel Herd
manager Daniel Herd: “We’ve
operated our network for close
to six years in the Selwyn district
and this is the first significant
outage.”
The damage was caused by
a contractor working for an
infrastructure company, but
when Selwyn Times asked who
was responsible, Enable did not
answer.
“Our primary initial focus
was on getting services back up
RECONNECTED: Lincoln has the fourth highest uptake of
fibre broadband in the Enable Network, but connection was
interrupted last week.
and running for our customers.
Which we did quickly,” Mr Herd
said.
“We’re now focused on investigating
what happened.”
The majority of customers had
fibre restored on Wednesday
about 5.15pm, more than 24
hours after the incident.
Essential customers such as
emergency and medical services
were restored within a “few
hours,” Mr Herd said.
Lincoln University was not affected
by the outage.
Mr Herd said he did not know
what the repair costs were, but
the responsible party would have
to foot the bill.
During the outage, service
provider Spark’s customers faced
long waits to call centres.
A customer in Lincoln told the
Selwyn Times he experienced a
two hour wait last Tuesday from
6.15pm to 8.15pm before hanging
up, only to find the call centre
had closed at 8pm when he tried
again. A Spark spokeswoman
said all calls started before 8pm
would be answered.
“In this customer’s case, had
they remained on the line, their
call would have been answered;
however, as they hung up and
tried again after 8pm, they heard
the message stating the call
centre was closed.”
Spark apologised for the long
wait time.
“Unfortunately, given the
unexpected nature of outages, we
do have occasions when our wait
times are longer than we want
them to be,” the spokeswoman
said. The chat service “usually”
has a faster response time than
calling, she said.
Lincoln has the fourth
highest uptake of fibre in the
Enable network, which provides
connections to the district,
Christchurch and Waimakariri
district. Sixty-nine per cent
of households in Lincoln have
fibre, the highest uptake in the
district is Rolleston with 77 per
cent of households having fibre
connections.
•Ploughing nationals, page 12
Local
News
Now
In Brief
Fire rages, homes at risk
CRASH IN LINCOLN
Two vehicles crashed at the
Ellesmere Junction Rd and
Gerald St roundabout in
Lincoln on Thursday about
4pm. A police spokeswoman
said one of the vehicles, a grey
station wagon, reportedly
failed to stop after the crash.
No one was injured.
MORE ROAD WORKS
Road works will be continuing
on Goulds Rd between Maltby
Drive and East Maddisons
Rd until May 17. The district
council said detours and
traffic management will be in
place during this time.
Last week, repairs were
completed on Selwyn and
Ridge Rds.
FUNDING GRANTS
Sport New Zealand Rural
Travel funding is open for
Selwyn sports teams, which
need to travel to games and
are made up of members aged
between 5 and 19-years-old.
The district council said
school competitions are not
eligible. The funding round
is open for winter sports only
and funding applications
close on May 24. For more
information visit www.selwyn.
govt.nz/services/funding/
sport-nz-rural-travel-fund
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