A significant internet outage impacted approximately 90% of New Zealand’s broadband users for about an hour. The widespread disruption stemmed from a fault within Chorus, the company responsible for the nation’s ultra-fast broadband (UFB) fibre network, which underpins all local Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Initial reports pinpoint the problem to a “Chorus Wellington UFB handover.” One ISP, Voyager, publicly cited this as the source of the outage. Chorus, formerly a part of Telecom NZ before its division into Chorus and Spark (an ISP), manages the country’s crucial fibre backbone infrastructure.

The impact was substantial, with social media platforms overflowing with posts from businesses reporting complete operational standstills due to the lack of internet connectivity. The incident underscores the critical dependence on a robust and reliable internet infrastructure for both individuals and businesses across New Zealand.