The Bulletin
Men's Weekly


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Cyclone Gabrielle broke vital communication links when people needed them most – what happened and how do we fix it?

  • Written by Ulrich Speidel, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Auckland
Cyclone Gabrielle broke vital communication links when people needed them most – what happened and how do we fix it?Without power or phone coverage, some communities resorted to more traditional forms of communication.Getty Images

Modern communication systems need two main things: power, and what engineers call “backhaul”, the connections that link cell towers and exchanges to the national network. When Cyclone Gabrielle struck, both were badly...

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