People are being warned to check before they dig following two separate incidents in the North Island where a fibre cable was cut.

The majority of Vodafone customers experience major network issues this morning.

Two separate third-party incidents caused major damage to essential fibre cabling near Matamata and Napier, says Vodafone NZ wholesale and infrastructure director Tony Baird.

He says this meant many customers in the central and eastern North Island were left without broadband internet and mobile phone connectivity

'Urgent remedial works were undertaken and service is now restored, with ongoing repairs continuing.

'While we have a number of resilience measures in place to ensure customers stay connected wherever possible, because there were two separate fibre cuts combined on the same fibre chain, it meant a reduced ability to reroute traffic in the area.”

Tony days with alert level 3 construction work back underway, and with shovel-ready projects likely to get started, contractors are being urged to check before they dig at all times.

'Mobile and internet broadband services rely on underground fibre cabling to function. While we appreciate that contractors are working to increased time pressures, accidental damage to underground cables can cause massive disruptions, which was evident today.

'We apologise to any customers who were impacted by these incidents outside of our control.”