Largest Australian Naval Ship Causes Internet & Radio Outages In New Zealand

One of the biggest ships of the Australian Navy, the HMAS Canberra, inadvertently blocked wireless internet and radio services in parts of New Zealand’s North and South Islands.

It happened when the ship was headed to Wellington, which it reached on Thursday. While sailing along New Zealand’s coast, the ship’s navigation radar interfered with wireless and radio signals over a region covering Taranaki in the North Island to the Marlborough region in the South Island.

Per reports, when the radar was heard on the frequency used by several internet providers and radio stations, they had to stop using the channel, and a local tech claimed that disruptions began around 2:00 am local time.

The New Zealand Defence Force said it had reached out to their Australian counterpart after the issue was reported.

After becoming aware of the situation, the ship changed frequencies, and the issue was resolved.

Dan O’Grady, manager of radio spectrum policy and planning at New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, said that there are different radio spectrum bands used for a lot of reasons, some of which are free of charge and can be shared or used by anyone. The interference reported was in one of the shared bands.

BrianFM radio station in Blenheim said it had to utilise the backup system to continue to broadcast.

Matthew Harrison, managing director of Primo, said that such an incident, where a warship takes your gear offline, does not happen every day. He added that it was not only a blip but a military-grade radar which triggered safety protocols made to safeguard airspace.

He added that it rolled across their network in sync with the movement of the vessel, stating he had never seen anything like it before.

References: Stuff.Co, Nine News

Source: Maritime Shipping News