Australian Naval Operations Accidentally Jam New Zealand’s Internet and Radio

Residents and businesses across New Zealand’s North and South Islands experienced an unexpected and widespread interruption to wireless internet and radio services.

The cause was traced to HMAS Canberra, the Royal Australian Navy’s largest warship, as it navigated the Cook Strait en route to Wellington.

The ship’s advanced navigation radar system, operating in the 5 GHz band, inadvertently interfered with wireless access points and radio transmitters in regions including Taranaki and Marlborough.

The incident was not a routine outage.

Rather, it was a dramatic example of how military and civilian spectrum uses can collide in real-world scenarios.

The radar’s powerful signals, sweeping across coastal areas as the ship moved, triggered built-in safety mechanisms in 5 GHz wireless devices.

These mechanisms, part of the Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) protocol, are designed to detect and avoid radar signals to prevent interference with critical ...