SUPPLIED
Damage to a Chorus fibre cable has affected homes and businesses.
North Island businesses and internet users have been plagued by outages caused by damage to fibre cables by civil contractors.
The latest was in the Gonville area affecting 293 users in Wanganui District.
Fibre communications provider Chorus said the Gonville problem was flagged late on Monday and a crew of fibre jointers was sent to determine the extent of the damage to the cable.
Due to health and safety concerns, remedial activities could not be carried out the same day.
The cable cut was in Totara St, Whanganui.
"The technicians have advised that the repair conditions are complex and repair activities are to be carried out during daylight hours," a Chorus spokeswoman said.
"The expected time for restoration is late Tuesday evening. Jointers are currently applying a permanent overlay on one end of the joint this morning with the other end of the joint to be started later this afternoon.
"Depending on how long that takes, we expect this to be resolved early Tuesday evening."
JULIE ILES/STUFF
Internet users have been frustrated by lack of information from telecommunications providers about outages.
An earlier outage hit users in Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa over the weekend.
It was due to damage to a cable on State Highay 2, between Paki Paki and Poukawa.
Social media comments have also been aimed at telecommunications company Spark for being slow to provide information.
Spark referred queries to Chorus.
The owner of Masterton Foot Clinic, Adam Phelps, said appointments and invoicing were affected on Monday and he estimated it cost the business about $1000.
"It was a pretty serious inconvenience for us but I fell more sorry for local retailers who were unable to use electronic point of sale services."
RACHAEL KELLY/STUFF
Chorus cables have been cut in the North Island.
Phelps said that he had spent several hours with his technical consultant about a 'plan b" for when it might happen again.
"It's really important because these services can never be entirely guaranteed."
Phelps said contingency plans included instructing staff on how to set up a hot spot using the cellular network for mobile phones to establish internet connection.
"Our phones come through the internet and we missed a lot of calls so we've set up a diversion to a call centre if it happens again."
A battery back up was an option for power blackouts, Phelps said.
The outages came as the Commerce Commission announced it wants to hear from consumers about their phone and broadband experience.
Parliament via theTelecommunications (New Regulatory Framework) Amendment Act has directed that the Commission to report on the quality of service consumers receive from telco providers."We want to know what New Zealanders like about their phone and broadband and things that frustrate them. We also want to know what information is useful to help them make choices about what providers and services they sign up to," telecommunications commissioner Dr Stephen Gale said.
"We've also released a summary paper which includes examples of what we think could be helpful for consumers when choosing their phone and broadband services.
"The aim of this work is to lift the level of service overall by encouraging providers to compete on quality, not just dollars and data."
Following feedback, the Commission will hold workshops with industry, consumer advocacy groups and interested consumers.
