On Sunday afternoon, 27th June, I discovered that my home phone line was dead. It simply wasn't working. However my internet connection was still fine. Using my cell phone, I contacted my phone company and, after checking that none of my three home phone connections was faulty, I was advised that a technician would be in touch with me within 24 hours. That didn't happen.

What did happen is that late Monday afternoon I received a cell phone call, followed by this email from a Chorus representative in Auckland:

"Telecommunications service disruptions affecting around 500 customers in Tawa

Local telecommunications network operator Chorus would like to apologise to those customers in the Larsen Cresent, Oriel Ave and Redwood Ave area of Tawa who may be experiencing disruptions to their phone and internet service.

Yesterday morning a fault was identified in the local telecommunications cable which provides fixed line phone and broadband services to the area. Affected residents will not be able to use their fixed line telephone to contact essential services and Chorus recommends the use of mobile phone services in the case of an emergency.

Chorus' field services team is onsite and working as quickly as to complete repairs. Customers should have their services restored progressively between now and midday tomorrow [Tuesday].

Customers experiencing disruptions should contact their service provider to report a fault and discuss any alternative services such as mobile phone or mobile broadband services which may be available to them whilst the repairs are being completed.

Attached is a photo of the team working on the corner of The Drive and Larsen Cresent."

The suggestion was made to me that the information provided by Chorus could be displayed on this website. The idea had some merit, although it wouldn't have been accessible by anyone whose internet was already down! However in little more than an hour of receiving that email my own internet access had been lost. That stifled my ability to readily add anything to this website anyway.

Mid-afternoon Tuesday, when neither my phone or internet had been fixed, I stopped to talk to one of the workmen on the corner of The Drive and Ngatitoa/Larsen. He explained that 800 wires were having to be 'sorted' one by one. Phone/internet connections were progressively being restored, but it would be Wednesday before everyone was back online again. He explained that the internet link is hardier than the phone link, which is why I had managed to retain my internet connection after the phone itself had gone dead. I admit to being pretty ignorant about all this sort of stuff, so decided I'd simply take his word for it. Apparently it was water having got into the system that had cause this problem in the first place.

At various times on Tuesday I talked to different members of the community who were without phone and internet connections. Interesting the different versions of how this had happened, and when exactly it would be put right! But thereagain "those in charge" didn't really seem to know anyaway!

By Wednesday morning my own phone and internet were both working again - thank goodness! However late that afternoon I received the following email from Chorus:

"Our technicians are working as quickly as possible to restore services but due to the wet weather it's taking longer than expected to complete the repairs to the faulty telecommunications cable. There are still around 100 customers without phone and internet services but we will progressively bring them back online between now and the end of the day [Wednesday].

We apologise for the delay but would like to assure local residents that we are doing everything we can to restore services as quickly as possible."

If you were one of those affected, you have my sympathy, especially if you were one of the last 100 to be connected again. As at the time of compiling this (Wednesday evening), some may still be out of action. And you certainly won't be able to wade through this fascinating 'documentary' until your internet connection is up and running again!

The pic below gives an idea of the mass of wiring that had to be sorted. Glad it wasn't my job!

- Malcolm Sparrow