Tarata's Vicki Frewin is angry with the lack of reliable telephone landlines in the area due to degrading copper lines and wants something done about it.

Residents of a rural Taranaki community are fed up with ongoing issues with their telephone system and want action taken to improve connections.

Vicki Frewin, of Tarata about 20km east of Inglewood, said landlines were constantly cutting out due to the degraded copper lines and she feared the impact it could have in an emergency situation as there was also limited cellphone coverage.

"We are worried that someone is going to die before they even think about bumping us up the list," Frewin said.

"In town you can pick up your cellphone but out here we can't."

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Frewin was so annoyed by the lack of interest shown by Spark and Chorus to upgrade the ageing copper lines she organised a public meeting, which 58 people including National Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger attended on Monday night.

"For our community that's huge, it is at least one person from each household," she said.

"People have been saying it has been bad for the last 10 years but just in the last 12 months it has got really bad."

Spark and Chorus said they were aware of the problems and appreciated it could be frustrating but they were doing everything they could to resolve the issues.

Frewin said almost anything could cause the copper lines to fail - including lightning, problems with old cabinets, and roadworks - and sometimes households would be left for weeks without a telephone.

"They know the copper lines in New Zealand are bad and old but they need to make rural areas, without cellphone coverage, a priority."

Frewin said the community felt vulnerable without any way of contacting police or emergency services if required.

Spark head of corporate communications Richard Llewellyn said Chorus owned and maintained the copper network which its customers were experiencing problems with.

"Issues on the copper network occur from time to time and when they do we escalate the fault to the service company and rely on information and updates passed back to us so that we can update our customers," he said.

Llewellyn said New Zealand faced a huge challenge to improve rural telco connectivity particularly in remote areas.

"It's something Spark has been working on with the wider industry and something which has been a focus of the Government's Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI)."

He said the Government recently announced an extension to the RBI and encouraged Tarata locals to register their interest online.

"If successful, outcomes of this could take the form of an RBI cell tower or the upgrade of a Chorus cabinet."

Chorus communications manager Steve Pettigrew confirmed ongoing roadworks in the area had contributed to the problem.

"The cable has been struck repeatedly by the work and this has generated multiple faults," he said.

Repairs and overlays were being carried out as the cable was damaged and the local team was working hard to keep it up and running, he said.

"In addition to the roadworks, there have been a number of lightning strikes on the cable and this has also generated faults in the past six months."

Pettigrew said it was in Chorus' planned work programme to upgrade the cabinet serving the area but an exact date hadn't been set.

Kuriger said connectivity in rural areas was a priority for her as an MP.

"I am a strong advocate for the notion that the accessibility of reliable methods of connectivity should not be determined by your city or rural post code."

New Zealand's unique geography made getting broadband and cellphone coverage into some areas hard, but the Government was committed to progress, she said.

"It is the Government's intention to continue rolling out connectivity, in our regions, whether that's broadband or mobile reception.

"It is also important that landlines remain workable until such time as the technology is superseded."