A widespread internet outage affected thousands of customers across Australia on Monday evening, disrupting services for TPG, Vodafone, iiNet, Internode and Kogan users. The outage, linked to a power failure caused by severe thunderstorms in New South Wales, left both businesses and individuals without broadband access.
TPG Telecom, one of the nation’s largest telecommunications providers, confirmed it was experiencing a technical issue impacting fixed broadband services. According to the company, its technical teams had identified the cause and were working to restore connectivity.
Thousands of Users Report Disruptions Across Multiple Providers
The outage led to a sharp increase in service complaints, with nearly 14,000 problem reports submitted on monitoring site DownDetector by 5.40 pm on Monday, according to user data. Reports later dropped to around 2,500 by 7 pm, suggesting some progress in restoring service.
According to TPG Telecom, the disruption affected both consumer and business broadband services, creating significant inconvenience for those relying on home internet and remote work connectivity. Customers across multiple brands under the TPG Telecom Limited group—which includes Vodafone, iiNet, Internode and Kogan—were impacted.
In a statement, TPG Telecom apologised for the disruption and confirmed its teams were working to restore services as quickly as possible. The company did not provide a timeline for full restoration but assured customers that the issue had been identified and was actively being addressed.
Power Outage Linked to Severe Storms in New South Wales
The incident coincided with widespread thunderstorms in New South Wales, which caused power disruptions across multiple regions. According to TPG Telecom, the outage was directly linked to a power failure following the storms, though further technical details were not disclosed.
The weather system that hit Sydney and surrounding areas on Monday brought heavy rain, strong winds and lightning, contributing to infrastructure damage and electricity outages. It is unclear whether additional telecommunications infrastructure beyond TPG’s services was affected.
As reliance on home broadband grows due to remote work and digital services, widespread service disruptions can have significant economic and operational impacts.
