A recent car crash in West Otago at which police, fire and ambulance services had no cellphone reception has highlighted how vulnerable rural residents can be in emergency situations.
The issue was raised at a West Otago Community Board meeting on Wednesday.
West Otago ward councillor and St John member Michele Kennedy said emergency services struggled to find cellphone reception when dealing with a 4WD crash in Switzers Rd near Heriot on January 2.
The incident, in which five people were injured and three were airlifted to Dunedin Hospital, tested police, fire and ambulance as they struggled to communicate via radio.
While it was unusual that radios did not work and it was not related to cellphone reception, the lack of communication between the services was an issue, Cr Kennedy said.
"It just highlighted [that] people that live out the back here are quite vulnerable."
Board member Linda Roulston said it was important something was done to address the issue.
Board chairwoman Barbara Hanna was going to investigate the Government-led Mobile Black Spot Fund (MBSF) and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) set up in 2015.
The plan invited local authorities to identify any black spots within their areas in a bid for a share of $50million in funding.
A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment spokesman said in a statement the RBI and MBSF aimed to improve mobile services to support safety on state highways.
A request for phase two of the initiative was issued last year and was due to close in April this year.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Vodafone said until the second phase of RBI was "locked down" and the extent of the programme confirmed, Vodafone was unable to publish its schedule of work for expanding its network in New Zealand. New Vodafone sites were built in several locations in the Southland and Otago districts in the past year, including Tapanui.
The spokeswoman said Vodafone worked closely with emergency services to review communication requirements and provided zero coverage solutions for emergency situations.
Last week, a Spark spokesman said it was challenging to get cell towers for coverage all over New Zealand.
About 95% of New Zealand had cell coverage. A new cell tower could cost $300,000 to $500,000.
It was economically challenging to install a tower in areas with low population density.
New Zealand’s demanding geographic features also made it difficult, the company said.
