Rural firefighters in the Far North are reporting problems with their pagers which they say could put lives or property at risk.
The brigades rely on pagers to alert volunteers to fire callouts but firefighters say in the last couple of months the service has been unreliable.
Volunteers from north of Wangarei to Kaeo in Bay of Islands say they have missed several callouts because their pagers did not go off.
They say that has caused delays as volunteers wait for drivers who fail to show up, and brigades have been short-crewed at some fires.
Far North principal rural fire officer Lance Johnston says cellphone calls have also failed to get through and text messages have been received up to two days after being sent.
Telecom says it recently made adjustments to some pager transmitters but these should not have affected coverage.
It says it will send technicians to Northland to check the transmitters.
