Mark Hooper: Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesperson on the connection crisis impacting farmers

More than one-third of farmers say their mobile coverage has gotten worse over the past year - and it's negatively impacting their work environment and overall safety.

New reports show only 57 percent of farmland gets coverage, and there's been no improvement since 2022.

Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesperson Mark Hooper says the situation is likely to get worse with the 3G network shutting down, and they're trying to get a handle on things.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More than a third of farmers say their mobile coverage
has actually gotten worse in the past year, and it's
affecting both their work and their safety. Only fifty seven
percent of farmland gets coverage with no improvement since twenty
twenty two. FED Farmer's telecommunications spokesperson Mark Hooper is with me. Now, Hey, Mark,
good evening. Were any idea why it's getting worse?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I would say that that's probably a pretty technical question.
I mean, it's probably relates to load capacity and all
of that sort of thing. But I guess that's probably
one of the key takeaways for us is that there's
obviously some technical challenges in that space. And one of

(00:44):
the reasons that we ran this survey at this point
in time is to get a bit of a baseline. Again,
what was a check in, because as he mentioned, this
hasn't changed since twenty twenty two, which we lasted the survey,
so that was surprising in the first instance, but also
coming up in twenty six we've got the sunsetting or
closure of the three Genie group and so potentially it

(01:06):
could get worse. So we're just trying to get a
good handle on what the situation is and hopefully look
for some technical solutions.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
It's it's quite apt that your line is a little
dodgy with us. Mark. Hey, you said thirteen percent still
using three G. That's pretty serious stuff because it is
coming to an end.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's right. And you know, there's there's
both that aspect to it in terms of, you know,
needing to change devices and stuff and preps. People are
still using those older devices because they get better coverage
from them. But also there's you know, there's also the

(01:50):
yet to be identified I guess in terms of what
happens when that closes down. Does that improve the four
G five G coverage? Some say yes, some say no.
So again, technical issues there that have to be worked through,
and so we're just trying to get a bit of
a baseline handle on what the situation is.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
What about starlink, Mark, Lots of people are texting and
saying get starlink.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah yeah. And so obviously we've seen a significant improvement
or uptake there of satellite services, and I think I
think this kind of plays into the bigger picture here
because on the one hand, you've got, as we've seen,
relatively petchy and limited cell phone coverage and areas. But

(02:32):
simultaneously a lot of those same people are experiencing or
facing the decommissioning of the Copper network. And there's still
forty percent that we're on a using a Copper landline,
and so that's quite high. Eighty percent of those didn't
have an alternative in place yet or any idea what

(02:53):
their alternative would be. So there's quite a transition to
happened there, and that kind of just isalates the concerns
I think that people have because you know, they look
at it and say, well, I've got really poor cell
phone coverage while they're cutting off my comper network. Obviously
they're different providers, but you know, it just adds to
that sense of isolation and concern.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
I totally understand the feeling mark, but is there what
do you say to people who will listen to this
and go, well, you know you are living really there
are fewer people. Therefore the investment, you know, from an
economic perspective, may not just be worth it.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I think if we take a holistic there is
actually quite a lot of good technology available as replacements,
particularly for the landline and internet services, and it's inevitable
that change is coming in that space, So that process

(03:52):
is very much underway. It's really a case of just
making sure that people have access to good advice, that
they can get an independent source of automation, they can
understand what options and also you know what the pros
and cons are. One of the things I guess, just
to come back to that starting question, you know, one

(04:13):
of our concerns is that we've got a lot of
good small New Zealand based businesses, whips you know, while
listen to me, supers providers do some work in our
communities and it's easy just to say, yes, Starlink does
a great job. But you know, should I give my
one hundred and fifty nine dollars a month to space?

(04:35):
Should I support.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Try and get it into a local one? Yeah, Hey, Mark,
we will have to wrap it up there. Unfortunately, and
ironically the line is pretty bad for you. It's Mark
Hooper speaking fed Farmer's telecommunications spokesperson, having trouble with our telecommunications.
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