---
title: "What causes nbn outages and how long do they usually last?"
description: "Common causes of network outages, planned maintenance, and how long repairs typically take."
url: "https://dev.www.lightningip.com.au/help/internet/what-causes-nbn-outages-how-long"
canonical: "https://dev.www.lightningip.com.au/help/internet/what-causes-nbn-outages-how-long"
updated: "2026-09-28"
---

# What causes nbn outages and how long do they usually last?

Common causes of network outages, planned maintenance, and how long repairs typically take.

Outages can happen anywhere along the path between your home and the wider internet. What caused an outage makes a big difference to how quickly it can be fixed.

## Common causes of unplanned outages

- **Damaged cables** - often from digging, roadworks or vehicle accidents.
- **Equipment failures** - at an nbn exchange, node or street cabinet, or in our network or our upstream carriers' networks.
- **Power outages** - affecting network equipment in your area.
- **Severe weather** - storms, flooding, bushfires and extreme heat can damage infrastructure, and heavy rain can also affect Fixed Wireless and Satellite services.

## Planned maintenance

nbn Co and our upstream carriers sometimes schedule maintenance to upgrade or repair parts of the network. This is usually done overnight to keep disruption to a minimum, and we list upcoming planned maintenance on our network status page.

## How long outages usually last

- **Equipment or software issues** - often resolved within a few hours, once the equipment is reset or replaced.
- **Physical cable damage** - usually longer, sometimes a day or more, particularly if specialist crews, traffic control or site access approvals are needed.
- **Severe weather** - can take several days when damage is widespread, as crews can only start repairs once it's safe to do so.
- **Planned maintenance** - typically a few hours, within the scheduled window.

## Is it an outage, or just my connection?

If nothing is listed on our network status page for your area, the problem may be specific to your home. Check that your power is on - your modem and nbn Connection Box need power to work, even when the network itself is fine. Then try restarting your modem, and contact us if your connection still doesn't come back.

We post updates on our network status page as soon as we have them, including revised timeframes if a repair takes longer than first expected.