http://www.stuff.co.nz/4188814a28.html

"Phone outages similar to those that caused major disruption in Auckland early last week could become increasingly common, as aging equipment in Telecom exchanges becomes harder to repair.


The Economic Development Ministry says Telecom might not be able to guarantee that 200 NEAX phone switches supplied by Japanese firm NEC will perform to "international norms" before they can be replaced.

Some of the switching equipment is 40 years old and NEC is no longer making some spare parts."

40 years is stretching it abit. The current NEAX excahnges only go back to the mid 1980s..