New Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown launches initiative to fix mobile black spots

Wayne Brown and his wife Toni. Photo / Jed Bradley

Incoming Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has launched an "initiative to fix the region's mobile phone black spots".

Brown has written to the chief executive officers of 2degrees, Spark and One (formerly Vodafone) offering to work with them to accelerate progress on eliminating remaining black spots and dropped-call rates in the Auckland Council region. His letter has been copied to Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP).

In the letter, Brown says Aucklanders ought to be able to walk about anywhere in the Auckland CBD and our other major business centres, and drive along State Highway 1 from the Bombay Hills to Wellsford and on our other main roads, without any risk of calls dropping out.

"It's my job to work with 2degrees, Spark, One, CIP and others to make that not just an aspiration but the reality all Aucklanders experience every day," he said.

Brown has asked for advice from 2degrees, Spark and One by the end of this month on how he can help them improve their service.

The 2022 Auckland mayoral election was held on October 8. Photo / Dean Purcell

New Zealand Telecommunications Forum CEO Paul Brislen responded to the letter by saying the telecommunications sector welcomes the Mayor's input and acknowledgement of "our significant ongoing investment both in Tāmaki Makaurau and across the whole country".

"New Zealand has one of the highest rates of investment in telecommunications in the OECD, but there is always more to do as products and services continue to rapidly digitise across the economy. We welcome the opportunity to discuss local government's role in future deployment.

"Telecommunications is rightly seen as an essential service and New Zealanders have come to depend more and more on our digital infrastructure and services to keep families connected, businesses up and running and to keep the economy working.

"Today we work closely with teams both within council and also among council-owned infrastructure partners to plan for and deploy our infrastructure. This is an area the Mayor and the new council could indeed help as new development sites, new subdivisions and the like are brought on line.

"It's vital that digital infrastructure is treated as a priority alongside other forms of infrastructure and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with the new council. We look forward to engaging with his worship the mayor and the new council in the very near future."