By Andrew Thorpe, ABC
At 230 metres long, HMAS Canberra is the Royal Australian Navy's largest vessel. Photo: AFP
The Department of Defence has acknowledged that HMAS Canberra, the Royal Australian Navy's largest warship, accidentally took out a number of wireless internet and radio services across New Zealand earlier this week during a visit intended to celebrate the sister city relationship between Canberra and Wellington.
The incident occurred early on Wednesday morning, as the 230-metre navy flagship made its way through the Cook Strait en route to New Zealand's capital, where the ship's crew is set to be welcomed with a parade and concert on Saturday.
According to local internet service providers (ISPs), HMAS Canberra's navigation radar began interfering with 5GHz wireless access points - devices that bridge wired and wireless networks - in regions on both New Zealand's North and South Islands at around 2am.
Wireless internet and radio outages caused by HMAS Canberra. Photo: ABC News
The radar interference triggered in-built switches in the devices that caused them to go offline, a safety precaution intended to prevent wireless signals from interfering with radar systems in New Zealand's airspace.
Stuff reported that the outages were first raised with Radio Spectrum Management, an agency within the government's business ministry.
The agency notified the New Zealand Defence Force, which notified the Australian Defence Force.
"On becoming aware, HMAS Canberra changed frequencies rectifying the interference," a spokesperson for Australia's Department of Defence said.
"There are no ongoing disruptions."
The outages affected wireless internet and radio services in Taranaki and Marlborough regions, the spokesperson added.
Matthew Harrison, managing director of New Zealand-based ISP Primo, said he had never seen anything like the incident before.
"This wasn't just a blip. It was full-scale, military-grade radar triggering built-in safety protocols … and it rolled across our network in sync with the ship's movement," he wrote on LinkedIn.
"It's not every day a warship takes your gear offline!"
Harrison said the incident underlined the fragility of New Zealand's radio spectrum environment, with rural fixed wireless services having to share a frequency band with radar systems.
-ABC
