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Vodafone is dealing with dozens of cell sites down across the North Island.
The company's Chief Technology Officer Tony Baird talks to Lisa Owen.
62 cell sites are down across the regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, Vodafone Chief Technology Officer Tony Baird says.
About 35 are running on battery backup. 44 of them are in Northland. 6 in Coromandel. 8 in Auckland. 4 in Waikato.
Power outages are behind the cell tower failures, he said.
Tony Baird told Checkpoint Vodafone is prioritising frequencies that'll go the farthest to allow people to make phone calls and get lower speed data services.
"We're shedding radio frequencies that are used for higher capacity broadband, like streaming Netflix, for instance, might be degraded but you'll still be able to make a phone call. It really just depends on where you are and how isolated you are."