Chorus : statement on network faults

Published 01/07/2016

Chorus is experiencing the usual spike in the number of weather-related winter faults, coupled with an unusually high number of incidents of damage to our copper network caused by third parties.

Fault levels have been trending down in the past five years and on average Chorus fixes about 34,000 faults per month on its copper network. Faults received in June were 38,000, about 16 per cent above volumes for summer months. As of today Chorus is managing about 3000 faults and there are undesirably long lead times in the following areas:

• Waikato region currently has 436 faults. The estimated average time to repair a fault is currently 75 hours

• Auckland region currently has 1615 faults. The estimated average time to repair a fault is currently 48 hours

• Upper South Island currently has 170 faults. The estimated average time to repair a fault is 31 hours

Chorus General Manager of Infrastructure Ed Beattie said:

'There is no doubt that heavy rain and lightning has an impact on the copper network, but each year Chorus has a plan in place to deal with the increased workload during the winter months and we share this plan with all internet service providers.

'What does not help, though, is when third party contractors damage our network, as was the case in Auckland last week when a property developer cut through a cable on our network, leaving more than 1600 consumers without service. This would have caused a large increase in calls to internet service providers' call centres.

'We have a number of initiatives underway right now to help deal with the winter fault increase, including recruiting more technicians. What does help us though, is if customers via their internet service provider were timely in reporting faults so we can get on to fixing faults quickly.

'In extreme cases it may take a number of days to repair faults, but this is often due to the fact that some consumers live in more remote parts of the country, or in the case of Auckland this week, have been the victim of an extreme weather event and accessing sites in a safe manner can take time.'

Chorus also strongly rejects claims that current fault loads are connected to the age of the copper network.

'Chorus' copper network is of a high quality and provides a fantastic service to millions of people every day. Chorus has invested heavily in this network over the past 5 years, and this has resulted in significantly-improved services for consumers. Thanks to this investment, about 80 per cent of households can now get VDSL and the average speed across Chorus' networks has increased from 10Mbps to 28.5Mbps.'