Without 3G 'rural mobile coverage has gone backwards'

A Manawatū councillor says "rural mobile coverage has gone backwards" as a new report finds roughly two in three farmers can't reliably call 111 on their farms.

Since the shut down of 3G mobile networks earlier this year, around 50% of farms had mobile coverage on less than half of their property, according to a Federated Farmers rural connectivity report released this month.

It revealed roughly two in three farmers couldn't rely on reaching 111 on their farm and only 35% of respondents could reliably call 111 from most places.

That compared to the September 2025 report, conducted while 3G was still available, which showed only 38% of farms experienced issues with mobile coverage.

Federated Farmers spoke to 641 farmers between August and September to understand the impacts of losing 3G.

One meat and wool farmer from Manawatū-Whanganui reported that her husband was recently trapped under a bike for four hours on the property. "We have had to buy my husband a smart watch that has the ability to call 111 if he gets in trouble on the farm as we cannot reliably get coverage over all the farm."

Another local respondent said it's "very dangerous" not having coverage in places where accidents might happen - like the house, an isolated shed or when working with machinery.

Manawatū District Council rural ward councillor Alison Short said there was consistently poor coverage and complete blind spots on sections of her home farm, just north of Halcombe, since the 3G shutdown.

Short said the new report revealed a hard truth about the impacts of losing 3G at rural properties.

"Rural mobile coverage has gone backwards."

The mobile network was officially shut down at the end of March after a phased disconnection from the end of 2025, to replace it with newer generation 4G and 5G networks.

"Losing the low-frequency 3G network, which was more flexible, has impacted much of our district including hill country, rural roads, coastal areas and Ruahine Forest Park," Short said.

She said the council had a digital radio network linking to 20 rural schools and community hubs which were tested weekly "to ensure communication lifelines exist when commercial cell phone coverage completely fails".

But February's extreme storm event showed the council many of the 20m cell towers in the district only had 12 hours of battery backup - causing issues for people navigating road closures, debris and weather conditions without coverage.

The council worked with various rural broadband providers and energy authorities to improve coverage in parts of the district and secure funding but this didn't go far enough, Short said.

"As council moves into a 4% rates capping environment, it'll be challenging to fund other initiatives to strengthen rural connectivity through rates alone, but we will continue to seek other funding sources."

Mayor Michael Ford said he too had poor phone coverage at his property, something which was "typical at Colyton and many other parts of our district".

The representative for all phone companies, Paul Brislen NZ Telecommunications Forum chief executive, told Breakfast earlier this month that there shouldn't be any issues reaching 111 and he urged farmers to report these issues to their telco.