At One NZ, our purpose is simple: a better-connected Aotearoa New Zealand. That’s why we’re investing in safer, more secure, reliable network infrastructure, so Kiwis can count on us when it matters most. We’re building a Self-Healing Network, powered by AI and automation.

Why does this matter?

Storms, maintenance, or just unexpected network faults can cause power outages in a cellsite. During these events, we’d expect our mobile phones to stay connected.

While One NZ Satellite TXT provides coverage during blackouts and emergencies to send messages (and will soon launch data via select apps and WhatsApp calling), it’s our land-based mobile network that delivers the capacity and indoor connectivity when it matters most.

A Self-Healing Network won’t prevent outages completely — but it will help us respond faster and minimise the impact with the infrastructure we have today.

What is the Self-Healing Network?

This is a work-in-progress, but the future vision is to detect and resolve issues faster, minimising the impact on customers and keeping you connected with confidence.

Here’s how it works today and in the future:

• Automatic monitoring: When a site loses power, our newly built automation detects it and adjusts services, like voice calls and data, to preserve battery life — helping keep customers connected for longer.

• AI-driven prioritisation: Today, engineers use AI to help with situational awareness, deciding which sites need generators first. In the future the AI solution will automatically create and assign dispatch jobs for field crew.

• Faster recovery: When power is restored, automation will unlock capacity layers, bringing services back to its original configuration.

What’s next?

Our goal isn’t zero outages — that’s not possible — but to make recovery quicker and smarter so customers feel the difference.

We’re moving from assisted automation to a truly self-healing network. There’s no set timeline for when the future state will be complete, but it’s something we’re working towards at pace.

The next step will then be to use:

• AI to automatically create and assign generator dispatch jobs – we envisage a future-state with no manual intervention.
• Neighbouring cell tower sites would then extend coverage automatically when another site goes down, then reconfigure back when power returns.
• Incidents would be updated and closed automatically, reducing delays and improving transparency.

Why it matters for customers, our people, and the planet:

• For customers: More reliable service, even in stormy conditions.
• For our people: Fewer emergencies and faster response times.
• For the environment: Fewer generator dispatches mean less fuel waste.
• For trust: A network that “just works” builds confidence and loyalty.

This solution is being built right here in Aotearoa by our own network, data, and AI engineers, a true example of how innovation can deliver better customer experience while keeping privacy and security strong and front-of-mind.

[Click here to Watch this video to see what we’re aiming for]