Hundreds of cell towers to be upgraded to protect 111 calls in natural disasters
Almost 300 cell towers around the country are being upgraded. Photo / Bevan Conley
Hundreds of cell towers around the country will be upgraded with better backup batteries to protect 111 calls in extreme weather events.
The investment will help delay the widespread communications blackouts that regions like Hawke’s Bay experienced in Cyclone Gabrielle.
Since Gabrielle struck in February 2023, there have been calls to improve cell tower resilience nationwide.
The project will see 295 cell towers upgraded by increasing battery backup capacity to 24 hours, helping maintain connectivity during power outages.
Currently, most cell towers have backup batteries in case of outages, but those batteries only last a few hours (about four to eight hours) and are for short-term outages, not natural disasters.
The upgrades mean people will still be able to call 111 from their mobile phones for a longer period if a tower loses power to the main grid.
It is expected the upgrades will benefit up to 1.7 million addresses nationwide.
The upgrades are for select cell towers across Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu-Wanganui, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Tasman, Marlborough, Canterbury, West Coast, Otago and Southland.
Work will begin on the project in the second half of 2026 and is expected to be completed by June 2027.
During Cyclone Gabrielle, 185 cell sites went offline, most of which were in Hawke’s Bay – where only 20% of the region’s cell sites remained online.
That hampered people’s ability to make calls or receive emergency text alerts once the cell sites went down.
Portable generators can be used to restore power to cell towers during prolonged outages, but they are difficult to deploy to hard-to-reach areas in extreme weather events.
Funding for the resilience project includes a $6.4 million government allocation from Budget 2025 to improve battery resilience.
A contract – $4m of that funding – has now been given to Spark and cell tower owner Connexa to upgrade 295 cell towers with better backup batteries.
The remainder of the fund (about $2.4m) will be allocated to future battery resilience projects, by the Government’s National Infrastructure Funding and Financing, once this project is completed.
Spark and Connexa are also contributing an undisclosed amount to upgrade the 295 cell towers, which is in the “millions of dollars”.
Connexa chief operations officer Jeff Partridge said the cell sites being upgraded were chosen based on vulnerability to power outages.
“This took into account historical outage data, the coverage of critical facilities like airports, hospitals, and marae, and access constraints that could delay restoration times during emergencies,” he said.
“For the Hawke’s Bay region, a total of 13 cell towers will be upgraded to include 24 hours of battery capacity.
“This will support approximately 60,000 addresses in the region.”
Phone users will be able to call 111 during prolonged outages no matter what phone provider they are with.
Spark customers will also be able to access mobile data and texts through those cell towers, while they remain powered.
Telco expert Jonathan Brewer, who authored a report after Cyclone Gabrielle calling for better backup batteries at cell towers, said it was a welcome investment.
“It’s a win,” he said.
“It is four to six times better than what you have got right now, and every extra hour helps.”
His report called for 48-hour backup at each cell site, rather than 24 hours, but said this was “a really good start”.
What about satellites?
Both Spark and One NZ have satellite networks, however you cannot call 111 from a phone using direct satellite networks.
Brewer said satellite calling technology was improving, but was still “five to 10 years away from being a realistic solution” in an emergency.
2degrees is also launching its satellite network this year.