NZ INTERNET OUTAGE DEMONSTRATES THE COUNTRY'S LACK OF RESILIENCE
When the SHTF people will lose their shit.
Australian navy ship accidentally blocks internet and radio across parts of New Zealand
Incident happened as one of the Royal Australian Navy’s largest ships was on its way to Wellington this week
The Australian defence force (ADF) has conceded that one of its ships inadvertently blocked wireless internet and radio services across swathes of New Zealand’s North and South islands this week.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning as HMAS Canberra, one of the largest ships in the Royal Australian Navy, was on its way to Wellington, where it ultimately arrived on Thursday.
As HMAS Canberra was passing along New Zealand’s coast on its approach to Wellington, its navigation radar interfered with wireless and radio signals over a large area spanning Taranaki in the North Island to the Marlborough region in the South Island.
It is understood that when the radar was heard on the frequency used by many internet providers and radio stations, those commercial operators had to stop using the channel.
One local tech boss claimed disruptions began shortly after 2am local time.
The New Zealand defence force said it contacted its Australian counterpart after the issue was reported.
“HMAS Canberra became aware that their navigation radar was interfering with Wi-Fi in the Taranaki to the Marlborough region on approach to Wellington,” an ADF spokesperson said.
“On becoming aware, HMAS Canberra changed frequencies rectifying the interference. There are no ongoing disruptions.”
The New Zealand defence force said it now considered the incident resolved.
Dan O’Grady, the manager of radio spectrum policy and planning at New Zealand’s ministry of business, innovation and employment, said the country’s radio spectrum management regime provides access to a wide range of different radio spectrum bands for different purposes, some of which involve sharing.
“Some spectrum bands are free of charge and available for anyone to use – such as the shared spectrum bands for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The interference that occurred on Wednesday was in one of these shared bands,” O’Grady said.
BrianFM, a radio station based in the South Island town of Blenheim and which broadcasts across the island, said it had to switch to a backup system to continue to broadcast.
“We like to be, you know, pretty reliable and robust, and it certainly took us out and numerous others,” the station’s founder, Andrew Jeffries, told the news outlet Stuff.
Matthew Harrison, the managing director of the New Zealand wireless internet and mobile telecommunications company Primo, said “it’s not every day a warship takes your gear offline”.
“This wasn’t just a blip,” Harrison wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “It was full-scale, military-grade radar triggering built-in safety protocols designed to protect airspace.
“It rolled across our network in sync with the ship’s movement. We’ve never seen anything like it here before!”
Harrison then joked: “Hey Royal Australian Navy … where can we send the bill?”
The Australian defence force (ADF) has conceded that one of its ships inadvertently blocked wireless internet and radio services across swathes of New Zealand’s North and South islands this week.
The incident occurred on Wednesday morning as HMAS Canberra, one of the largest ships in the Royal Australian Navy, was on its way to Wellington, where it ultimately arrived on Thursday.
As HMAS Canberra was passing along New Zealand’s coast on its approach to Wellington, its navigation radar interfered with wireless and radio signals over a large area spanning Taranaki in the North Island to the Marlborough region in the South Island.
It is understood that when the radar was heard on the frequency used by many internet providers and radio stations, those commercial operators had to stop using the channel.
One local tech boss claimed disruptions began shortly after 2am local time.
The New Zealand defence force said it contacted its Australian counterpart after the issue was reported.
“HMAS Canberra became aware that their navigation radar was interfering with Wi-Fi in the Taranaki to the Marlborough region on approach to Wellington,” an ADF spokesperson said.
“On becoming aware, HMAS Canberra changed frequencies rectifying the interference. There are no ongoing disruptions.”
In addition, this happened but in a very strange way. First, I lost access to Substack; I was still able to use the internet for a while and was watching a video when I lost all connectivity.
It was not the flick of a switch.
'Human error' behind massive internet outage across lower North Island
Human error during planned works resulted in internet outages. Photo: 123RF
Ultrafast broadband provider Chorus says Friday morning's massive internet outage across the lower North Island was caused by human error.
Connections went down before 11am, affecting connections from Wellington, Kapiti, Hutt Valley, Palmerston North and through to Napier. One internet service provider estimated 90 percent of customers in the regions were affected.
The outage lasted more than an hour, and was fixed by about 12.30pm.
Chorus on Friday afternoon said it was "the result of human error during planned works, which resulted in one of our core ethernet routers for the Wellington region being isolated from our network".
"The error was identified and corrected, and all services restored within a 1.5-hour period," the infrastructure provider said.
"At its peak, approximately 118,000 services were affected by the outage."
Chorus said a "full investigation" had been launched, "which will include a review of our planned works processes, and any changes needed to prevent a similar situation in future".
"Chorus sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused and thanks those impacted for their patience and understanding."
Gorilla Technology chief executive Paul Spain told RNZ that he understood the equipment that failed was based in a Chorus site on Wellington's Courtenay Place.
Spain said it appeared to have had some sort of technical fault.
"We usually don't have these things having such a widespread impact because there tends to be redundancy built into the system, because if one component fails another part of the network takes up the slack and keeps operating."
He said it was likely Chorus would provide more details in due course.
"We usually see the Chorus network being really resilient and serving New Zealand well, so you know this is a reasonably uncommon occurrence."
Spain told RNZ these types of issues could have a widespread impact.
"I think Chorus will be working hard after this to understand what happened [and] how do they make sure it never happens again."
Earlier, Voyager said it had identified an issue affecting "Chorus Wellington UFB (ultrafast broadband) handover".
"This handover services Wellington, Kapiti, Hutt Valley, Palmerston North and through to Napier."
Just after 12.30pm, Voyager said connections were starting to come back online, but users might need to restart their routers.
"My office is being kept updated on the situation," Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith said earlier, when connections were still offline.
The New Zealand defence force said it now considered the incident resolved.
Dan O’Grady, the manager of radio spectrum policy and planning at New Zealand’s ministry of business, innovation and employment, said the country’s radio spectrum management regime provides access to a wide range of different radio spectrum bands for different purposes, some of which involve sharing.
“Some spectrum bands are free of charge and available for anyone to use – such as the shared spectrum bands for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The interference that occurred on Wednesday was in one of these shared bands,” O’Grady said.
BrianFM, a radio station based in the South Island town of Blenheim and which broadcasts across the island, said it had to switch to a backup system to continue to broadcast.
“We like to be, you know, pretty reliable and robust, and it certainly took us out and numerous others,” the station’s founder, Andrew Jeffries, told the news outlet Stuff.
Matthew Harrison, the managing director of the New Zealand wireless internet and mobile telecommunications company Primo, said “it’s not every day a warship takes your gear offline”.
“This wasn’t just a blip,” Harrison wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “It was full-scale, military-grade radar triggering built-in safety protocols designed to protect airspace.
“It rolled across our network in sync with the ship’s movement. We’ve never seen anything like it here before!”
Harrison then joked: “Hey Royal Australian Navy … where can we send the bill?”
Was this really an accident ?
There is "human error" and then there is deliberate action. As the Australian and NZ politicos regard their subjects as little better then human cattle Im gunna go out on a limb and suggest the later. Gotta see how the goy react when we REALLY turn out the lights...