Spark and Chorus are in the process of upgrading copper lines Nationwide across the country which means that most landlines will eventually be physically withdrawn and those remaining will not reliably support alarm communication. The upgrade is happening in a structured manner, so not everyone will lose their service at the same time. However, for some, the changes have already been made while others are just starting. (see “How do I know if I am affected and when this will occur?” question below)

Chorus is upgrading New Zealand to fibre and over time are retiring the copper landline services to homes.

Alongside this Spark are upgrading the copper lines in the exchanges both large and small.  The large exchange upgrades are part of the PSTN project and affect wider areas while the smaller exchange upgrades are done on a street or suburb basis.

These changes will affect almost all copper landlines no matter who provides telephone or broadband services to the customers.

New Zealand’s copper phone network is over 30-years old, and the telephone exchange equipment is also being upgraded to deliver services digitally. The new system is a more resilient digital technology that is used around the world. https://www.chorus.co.nz/copper-network

Securely is working with Spark and Chorus to understand what Exchanges, streets and suburbs will be affected by the upgrade and when so that we can proactively advise our customers in the affected areas.

Once we receive this information, we are cross matching with our customer base so that we can provide our customers as much notice as possible of the change.

This is a Nationwide project so all landlines will be impacted at some point.  Spark do publish some areas on their website but only those immediately impacted rather than in advance.  Link below. https://www.spark.co.nz/shop/landline/landline-migration/

No. These changes will affect all copper landlines no matter who provides telephone or broadband services to the customers.

Other providers may supply landline services that will be impacted by the Spark upgrades. These providers may be upgrading their services on a different timescale ahead of Spark and will be contacting their customers directly.  If you receive a notification from another provider, the date that they provide will become the date that your upgrade becomes effective so please contact us as soon as you can to discuss your options.

If you have a security alarm that uses a landline to communicate with us, you are affected. We are sending emails to all customers in a “wave” approach. Those already affected and those about to be affected will receive emails from us first, followed by those affected at a later (still to be scheduled) time.

You have several options open to you. Call us on 0800 904 904 to discuss what’s best for you and your situation.

1. You could purchase a communicator module that is installed into your existing security system that would then connect to our Monitoring Centre over the mobile network and not use the PSTN network.
2. If your alarm is quite old, it might not be able to have a communicator installed, so you would then need to either replace your control panel with a new one that could continue to use the other parts of your alarm like the motion sensors and smoke alarms, or it might mean you have to upgrade the whole alarm to maintain a connection to our Monitoring Centre.
3. The third option is to take this as an opportunity to upgrade your home alarm to be “smart’. SECURELY® has a smart home and security platform that you can manage from your smart phone as well as continuing to use our Monitoring Centre.

We cannot ensure that no disruption to services will occur but can offer solutions to future proof your alarm and to discuss options. You may need a cellular communicator added to your system or an upgrade to your alarm. Give us a call on 0800 904 904 8.30am – 5.00pm to see if this option is suitable for your alarm.

If your alarm requires an upgrade or a communicator, there will be a charge.  Installing a communicator has the benefit of a battery back-up, so your alarm will continue to work during a power outage.  Please give us a call to discuss your options. Phone 0800 904 904 or email:  technical@securely.nz

Call us on 0800 904 904 and we’ll take you through the cancellation process.

We have many customers impacted by the upgrades taking place over the next few months, so our team are working very hard to be able to support them through this change.

There are however limited supplies of some components and only a certain number of specialist technicians available.

We recommend that you consider your options and then book in as soon as you can. If you wait until just before the upgrade is due to take place we may already be fully booked and would have to book you in when we could, which may not be before the upgrade was completed.

Please email technical@securely.nz or call us on 0800 904 904 business days between 8.30 – 5.00pm and we’ll be happy to help.

No, you don’t. We don’t have technicians available in every area of the country, and of course you are always free to use a technician of your choosing.  If you are in an area where we don’t have a technician available, we’ll be able to talk you through that when you call.

Yes, they are, and we are progressively replacing our landline medical alarms. Where medical alarms are impacted in an area, we will be contacting customers or Village Managers directly to arrange for these to be swapped out.  Unlike security alarms, medical alarms are generally supplied to customers on a leased basis with their own specific terms and conditions.

You call one of our technical staff on 0800 904 904 between 8.30am – 5pm during the week. You can talk to a real live person based in Levin about what’s happening and what you need to do. If no one is available to talk to you when you ring, your call will be diverted to our 24/7 Monitoring Centre (also in Levin), and they will take your details so our Tech Support team can call you back. We are expecting to be very busy with calls during this transition.

GPRS Communicators use sim cards to communicate with our monitoring centre. Like your cell phone, there is a monthly charge for having a sim card and also for messages sent. We get charged by the provider and pass this charge onto the customer.