When your Spark broadband drops out, the first thing to work out is whether the fault is on the network or inside your own home — because the fix is completely different for each. A network outage is Spark’s job to repair, and there is nothing to gain by restarting your gear; a fault at your end can often be sorted in a few minutes. This guide walks through how to tell the two apart quickly, how to get back online (or stay connected another way), and how to report a genuine fault so it actually gets fixed.
Is Spark down, or is it just your place?
The quickest way to answer that is to check two official live status tools and run one simple test. If any of them shows a fault at your address, stop troubleshooting your own equipment — it will not help.
- Spark’s outage page. Spark publishes current broadband and mobile outages by region on its outage and network status page, with an address search box. If your street is listed, there is nothing to fix at home — note the estimated restoration time and skip ahead to staying connected.
- The Chorus outage map. Most Spark fibre and copper lines run over the Chorus network, so the Chorus outage map often shows a fault before Spark’s own page updates. It lists the affected area, the services affected, a status and an estimated fix time, again searchable by address.
- A quick phone test. Turn Wi-Fi off on your phone and see whether mobile data still loads a web page. If mobile works but your home broadband does not, the fault is on the fixed line; if your whole street’s mobile is out too, you are more likely looking at a wider network or power event.
Crowd-sourced trackers such as Downdetector can hint at a spike in reports, but they are not authoritative and cannot see your address — treat them as a second opinion only. Note that fixed wireless and 5G home broadband run on the mobile network, so a cell-site outage takes those connections down as well; Spark’s outage page covers both fixed and wireless services.
When the maps show no outage at your address
If neither status tool lists a fault, the problem is somewhere between the street and your device. Work through these checks in order — they run from the most common and easiest to the least likely.
1. Read the fibre box (ONT) lights
The ONT (Optical Network Terminal) is the white Chorus box on the wall where the fibre cable ends. It reports the network’s side of the connection, so its lights are the fastest way to see whether the fibre link itself is healthy. The most common current model is the ONT 500, but older Type 100, 200 and 300 units use slightly different labels — Chorus’s ONT 500 light guide covers each one. A solid red LOS light means the fibre signal is lost: that is a network fault for Spark to log with Chorus, not something a restart will fix. If you are unsure which box is the modem and which is the router, our guide to what the modem and router each do on NZ fibre explains how to tell where a fault sits.
Quick facts
What the lights on a Chorus fibre box (ONT) should show, and what a fault looks like. Exact labels vary by model — check the ONT 500 guide for your unit.
| Light | Normal | Fault sign | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| POWER | Solid green | Off (no power) or red (running on battery) | Check the wall switch and the ONT power button; confirm the house has power |
| PON / LINK | Solid green | Flashing (still connecting) or off (not registered) | Wait a few minutes after power-on; if it will not go solid, log a fault |
| LOS | Off | Flashing or solid red (fibre signal lost) | Network fault — report it to Spark; a restart will not fix it |
| GE1 / LAN | Solid or flashing | Off (no link to your router) | Reseat the Ethernet cable at both ends and try another cable |
2. Power-cycle in the right order
Order matters, because the router needs the ONT to be fully connected before it starts up. Turn off your router first, then the ONT. Wait about 30 seconds. Switch the ONT back on and wait for its PON (or LINK) light to go solid green — this can take a minute or two — then power the router. Spark’s Smart Modem 3 and the newer Futura modem take two to three minutes to settle before Wi-Fi and internet return, so give it time before deciding the restart failed.
3. Check the cable between the ONT and your router
The Ethernet cable that runs from the ONT’s GE1 port to your router’s WAN port is the one that carries your connection. Reseat both ends firmly; the GE1 light on the ONT should be solid or flashing when the link is good. A cable that has been chewed by a pet, crushed under furniture or kinked behind the TV unit is a surprisingly common cause of a “dead” connection with otherwise healthy ONT lights.
4. Tell a Wi-Fi problem apart from an internet problem
Plug a laptop straight into a spare LAN port on the router with an Ethernet cable. If the wired connection works but Wi-Fi does not, your internet is fine and the fault is with the wireless network — think channel congestion, distance or a dead zone rather than an outage. Our guide to fixing weak Wi-Fi covers placement, extenders and mesh systems that solve those problems.
5. Rule out a billing hold or plan change
A missed payment or an incomplete plan change can suspend a connection with no fault anywhere on the network. The Spark app shows your account and connection status, so it is worth a quick look before you spend an hour on hardware.
6. Try another device and a local reset
If only one device is offline, the fault is that device, not the line — test a second phone or laptop, toggle its Wi-Fi off and on, and forget-and-rejoin the network. A stale local address or cached DNS entry can also block a single machine while everything else works; restarting the device usually clears it. If a general refresh does not help, our broader internet-not-working checklist goes through the full troubleshooting order in more depth.
How to stay connected during the outage
If the fault is on the network, you cannot speed up the repair — but you can keep working. The table below compares the realistic ways to stay online, and the notes after it cover what to do while you wait.
Comparison
| Option | How it works | Typical cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone mobile hotspot | Share your phone’s mobile data over Wi-Fi to a laptop or tablet | Uses your plan’s data (often included) | A few hours of email and browsing |
| Spark Outage Assist | Spark auto-adds free data, calls and texts to an eligible Spark mobile during a detected fibre or copper outage | Free (needs a Spark pay-monthly mobile) | Spark households with a Spark mobile |
| Mobile / 4G-5G broadband modem | A separate wireless modem on the mobile network | Plan or prepaid data | A reliable ongoing backup line |
| Starlink satellite | Satellite broadband, independent of local fibre and copper | Hardware plus a monthly plan | Rural or outage-prone areas |
| Public Wi-Fi / library | Free internet at libraries, cafes and malls | Free or low cost | Printing and urgent one-off tasks |
A few practical points during any outage:
- Outage Assist is automatic for many Spark households. If you have a Spark broadband plan and a Spark pay-monthly mobile, Spark’s Outage Assist automatically adds free data (around 14GB), plus unlimited New Zealand calls and texts, to your mobile when it detects a fibre or copper outage, and lets you hotspot other devices for free. It renews every seven days for up to a month, is not available on Wireless Broadband plans, and can be limited if the mobile network is under strain during a disaster or widespread power cut.
- Use your phone as a hotspot for a laptop; most pay-monthly plans include hotspotting, and a few hours of email and browsing uses very little data.
- Download what you will need — tickets, documents, a film for the kids — while a mobile connection is up.
- Check anything that rides on the broadband line. Medical alarms, monitored security systems and EFTPOS terminals may have failed over or stopped; confirm they are working or have a backup.
- Set a timer, don’t hover. If your area outage has an ETA, restarting the modem every ten minutes changes nothing during a network fault.
For a longer-term backup, a mobile broadband modem or Starlink satellite broadband runs independently of the local fibre and copper network. For a one-off, libraries, cafes and co-working spaces offer free or cheap access — our guide to finding an internet cafe or public web access near you lists the options.
Reporting a fault and getting a credit
Log the fault through the Spark app or the help site rather than social media — that is what creates the ticket Chorus works from. You can also call 0800 800 123, or 120 from a Spark mobile. Keep a note of the dates and hours you were without service, and once it is restored, ask for a credit for the downtime: providers generally credit outages when asked, and rarely when not.
If a fault stays unresolved, you can escalate for free to Telecommunications Dispute Resolution (TDR). TDR is free for residential customers and small businesses with fewer than 20 full-time staff, and can consider a claim once the dispute is “deadlocked” — broadly, six weeks after you first raised it with Spark (or 15 working days after TDR refers it to Spark, whichever comes first). It can award up to $15,000, and a complaint must be brought within 12 months of the issue.
Why Spark outages happen
Most outages fall into a handful of causes, and knowing which one you are facing helps set expectations for how long it will take:
- Fibre or cable damage — a digger through a street cable or storm damage is the classic hard outage, and repairs can take hours.
- Power cuts at a cabinet, exchange or cell site take everything downstream offline until power returns.
- Planned maintenance, which Spark and Chorus usually schedule overnight and list in advance on their status pages.
- Congestion or a soft fault that a restart or a Chorus-side reset clears.
- Hardware failure in the ONT or router at your home.
Copper customers should also know that Chorus plans to switch off its copper network nationwide by 2028, so a repeated copper fault is often the prompt to move to fibre rather than keep repairing an ageing line — the Telecommunications Forum explains the copper retirement process and your options.
Before you call Spark: what to have ready
You will get to a resolution faster if you have already done the basic checks and can describe what you see. Having this on hand saves the support agent walking you back through the obvious steps:
- Your account or customer number, and the address the connection is at.
- What the fibre box lights are doing right now — especially whether the LOS light is red and whether PON is solid or flashing.
- What you have already tried: the power-cycle, the cable reseat, and whether a wired laptop works.
- Whether the outage maps showed anything at your address when you checked.
- When it started, and whether it is constant or dropping in and out — an intermittent fault is diagnosed very differently from a hard outage.
If the connection returns but feels slow or keeps dropping afterwards, it is worth confirming you are getting the speed you pay for before assuming the fault is fully cleared — run an internet speed test on a wired connection and compare it with your plan.
Disclaimer: This is general information only. Spark’s support processes, modem models, Outage Assist terms and the Chorus copper switch-off timetable are current as at September 2026 and may change — always check Spark’s outage page for live information during an event.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if Spark internet is down in my area?
Search your address on Spark’s outage page and on the Chorus outage map. If either lists a fault at your address, it is a network outage and there is nothing to fix at home. If neither does, the problem is most likely at your end — start by reading your fibre box lights.
Why is my Spark internet not working when there is no outage?
In rough order of likelihood: a red LOS light on the fibre box (a network fault to log with Spark), a modem that needs a power-cycle, a loose or damaged Ethernet cable between the ONT and the router, a Wi-Fi problem rather than an internet one, or an account suspended over billing.
How do I report a Spark outage or fault?
Use the Spark app or the help site, or call 0800 800 123 (or 120 from a Spark mobile). That creates the fault ticket, which is what Chorus works from if the problem is on the fibre or copper network.
Can I get a refund or credit for a Spark outage?
Usually, if you ask. Note the dates and hours you were offline and request a credit once service is restored. If the fault is not resolved after about six weeks, you can take it to Telecommunications Dispute Resolution for free.
What does a red light on the Chorus fibre box mean?
A solid or flashing red LOS light means the fibre signal has been lost. That is a network fault for Spark to log with Chorus; restarting your gear will not fix it. Solid green POWER and PON lights are normal, and a flashing PON means the box is still trying to connect.
