Emergency services were left "very vulnerable" at the weekend as flooding caused network outages across the South, making tens of thousands of people lose internet and mobile coverage. A Spark spokeswoman said at 10.15am almost all the affected services were restored by a workaround using spare fibre strands and additional cables. Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Dan Reilly said yesterday the outage was "obviously having an effect" on its operations. "We have a lot of devices connected to the Spark network, but are making do with our alternative means of communication." The Southern District Health Board said on social media the outage affected its communications, but itsservices were running as normal by midmorning.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 08, 2019 15:22 UTC