Metal base supports are all that remain of a communication tower felled by vandals, cutting phone and internet services as well as emergency service communications to a wide area around Kaiwaka and Maungaturoto. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Metal base supports are all that remain of a communication tower felled by vandals, cutting phone and internet services as well as emergency service communications to a wide area around Kaiwaka and Maungaturoto. Photo / Michael Cunningham
A large swathe of the Kaipara District remains without full mobile phone and internet services after a key communications tower was vandalised.
The 38-metre-high tower, which provided 3G and 4G services to the Kaiwaka and Maungaturoto areas, was deliberately felled on January 2.
The Advocate understands the tower was also used by emergency services, leaving police, Fire and Emergency and St John Ambulance without communications in the initial hours after the attack.
Spark has so far put up two temporary cellphone towers and is looking for a location for a third, but their reach is significantly less than that of the unusually tall tower.
Spark spokeswoman Samantha Smith said the cell site, in the Maungaturoto area, was damaged beyond repair and customers in the area continued to face degraded or lost mobile service.
The affected tower was particularly tall and provided mobile and wireless broadband services to a large area.
''We worked to urgently deploy a temporary site and installed it as soon as the police had completed the investigation. While this restored some coverage, temporary sites are not as tall as the one that was damaged, so the signal is unable to reach as many customers,'' Smith said.
The tower - seen here before it was felled - provided 3G and 4G services to the Kaiwaka and Maungaturoto areas. Photo / supplied
A second temporary site was deployed on January 21 to boost coverage further while Spark worked to rebuild the permanent tower.
The company was working to secure a location for another temporary site, in a bid to connect customers who weren't getting coverage from the two existing temporary sites.
Spark was also providing an automatic credit to affected wireless broadband and wireless landline customers and encouraged mobile customers to get in touch to discuss their options.
''We're incredibly disappointed that someone has attacked a critical piece of infrastructure and subsequently left consumers and businesses without mobile and wireless broadband. We'd like to assure the affected community that we are doing everything we can to get services restored.''
Securing suitable locations and getting mobile towers up and running — temporary or permanent — was "incredibly complex" and could take time, especially if a site had been taken down unexpectedly.
''So we're grateful for customers' patience and understanding while we work through this,'' Smith said.
Spark customers who were still without a connection could still make 111 calls, as long as another mobile network operator had coverage at that location, thanks to an agreement between the country's cellphone companies.
Detective Senior Sergeant Rob Huys, of Northland police, said two communication towers in Northland were targeted last month.
As well as the Spark tower on January 2, another cell site, from a different provider, was damaged at Waipu on January 18.
''Both incidents are concerning to police and are being treated with urgency,'' Huys said.
Police were following ''a number of lines of enquiry'' but urged anyone with information on either incident to contact police on 105, quoting file number 220104/9808.
Information could also be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Kaipara Mayor Jason Smith said damaging key infrastructure was highly irresponsible and could cost lives.
''Especially on busy state highways, the cellphone network is essential for life-saving if people are involved in car accidents. We know the road through the Brynderwyns is dangerous, so it's very reckless, very irresponsible and it makes me very sad,'' Smith said.
The Advocate understands copper cabling was also stolen from the destroyed cell site.
This 4G cellphone tower at Waiharara, north of Kaitaia, was rebuilt by the Rural Connectivity Group after it was destroyed in an arson attack in 2020. Photo / Peter de Graaf
It's not clear what motivated the offenders to target the two towers.
However, in the past few years, large numbers of cellphone towers have been burnt down or otherwise vandalised worldwide in response to unfounded conspiracy theories linking 5G phone networks to the Covid pandemic.
A 4G cellphone site at Waiharara, north of Kaitaia, was destroyed by fire in 2020 even before the Rural Connectivity Group could finish putting up the tower. It was later rebuilt.
Like the cell tower near Maungaturoto, it did not transmit 5G services.
