Hanging on the telephone

Repairs to fix a 76-year-old’s storm-damaged phone line have dragged on for more than a month – despite the pensioner saying it’s a matter of life and death. By Simon Smith.

A month on from the storms that downed power and phonelines for tens of thousands of Aucklanders, one 76-year-old is still cut off – and says that getting reconnected is a matter of life and death.

When Ted Scott’ suffered a heart attack last year, it was only a call to 111 that saved his life – but following the April 10 hurricane-force storm that lashed the North Island, that lifeline has gone and still hasn’t been repaired.

The storm not only knocked out the electricity, but the local Spark cellphone tower on Auckland’s west coast went down for three days, taking with it Scott’s wireless internet.

The value of having a copper phoneline proved invaluable to Scott when first responders from Piha got to him 15 minutes after his heart attack. ‘‘And I thought then, thank God I had this 111.’’

Scott’s been trying ever since the storm to get his landline fixed, but Spark told him he’d be better off to transfer to an internet phone – despite the fact that mobile reception in the area is patchy and he would have no way to dial out in a powercut, a frequent occurrence at his house in Karekare.

Over the past month, he had been given four dates that technicians would get his landline working again, but it was still silent.

Spark spokeswoman Lydia Tebbutt said the situation was ‘‘very unfortunate’’, and she apologised ‘‘for any inconvenience’’.

The company’s fixed landline service was provided on the network owned by Chorus, which Spark liaised with to fix any faults, she said.

Chorus got the phone working on April 24, but it went dead again a week later – and when equipment in the local cabinet was replaced, it revealed a ‘‘much larger fault’’ up the line was revealed.

Scott said that as far as he was aware, his phone only came back online for an hour over the past month.

Tebbutt said the fault was still being worked on and Spark was asking Chorus when it would be fixed.

It would send Scott a Cel-Fi booster to ensure he could dial 111 from his cellphone, she said.

Scott said he has history with Telecom – which split in 2011 into Spark and Chorus.

His art featured on the front of the 1990 Auckland telephone directory, and he used the $2000 prize money to set up his life as a freelance photographer.

‘‘And now it’s stuffed up by the same people; it’s a cruel world.’’

The photographer and artist paid Spark $63.30 a month for a copper wire landline, but even though he would be refunded, ‘‘the point of it is that we need a phone because this is the 21st Century’’.

Tebbutt said people unhappy with Chorus’ copper line network service should transfer, where feasible, to fibre or wireless broadband.

Customers were less likely to experience a fault that way, she said.

‘ The point of it is that we need a phone because this is the 21st Century.’ TED SCOTT