The street and the lead-in
- What goes wrong
- The cable from the street is cut or damaged, often by other work outside the building.
- Whose it is
- NBN's up to the building; the building's pathway on its own land.
- What to ask for
- Your provider to raise it with NBN, with photos of any work nearby.
The comms room door
- What goes wrong
- Nobody can get in. The key's gone, the lock is restricted, or no one opens it after hours.
- Whose it is
- The building's.
- What to ask for
- A named key holder, a spare your manager can reach, and an after-hours contact on the door.
The main frame (MDF)
- What goes wrong
- A missing jumper, the wrong pair, a pair someone else is using, and nothing tagged.
- Whose it is
- NBN's equipment and jumpers to the frame; the building's frame and pairs.
- What to ask for
- Every unit's pair tagged, and a record of every jumper and who ran it.
The riser and floor frames
- What goes wrong
- Corroded or damaged pairs, and numbers that change between frames.
- Whose it is
- The building's.
- What to ask for
- A test from the frame to the unit, and the results kept with the building's records.
Inside a unit
- What goes wrong
- Old phone sockets still on the line, an old modem, or crowded wifi.
- Whose it is
- The owner's (the landlord's, for a tenant).
- What to ask for
- The owner to have the unit's own cabling checked before the building's is blamed.
The lift
- What goes wrong
- A 3G-only lift phone or SIM that stopped calling out when the network closed.
- Whose it is
- The building's phone, the lift company's lift.
- What to ask for
- A test call from the car, a 4G unit with a battery, and a SIM on a plan that never lapses.
For strata and building managers
Why apartment internet breaks, and what the building manager can do about it
Six places a block's internet, phones and lift phone go wrong, who owns each one, and what to ask for. With a comms room checklist your committee can print and walk through.
When a unit’s internet stops working, three parties own three parts of the same line, and each one tends to point at the next. The provider says the line tests fine to the building. Strata says it’s the provider’s service. The owner or tenant is stuck in the middle, and the building manager gets the calls.
Most of it comes back to a handful of places in the building, and most of those are the building’s to look after. Tap through the block above, or read on.
Who owns which part
Street to the frame is NBN’s: the fibre and NBN’s equipment in the comms room. The frame to each front door is the building’s: the riser cabling, any floor frames and the pair to each unit, which in most strata schemes is common property. Inside each door is the owner’s.
That middle stretch is the one nobody thinks about until something breaks, and it’s the one the building is responsible for. How fibre to the building works.
The comms room: access is the first fault
A surprising number of jobs stall before anyone touches a cable, because nobody can get into the comms room. The key is with a manager who’s left, the lock is a restricted key system and the strata company doesn’t hold one, or the room is shared with the car park and nobody knows who opens it after hours. Technicians who can’t get in leave, and the unit stays dead.
Know who holds the key, keep a spare where your manager can get it, and have an after-hours contact on the door.
The main frame: where most unit faults are
The main frame (the MDF) is where every unit’s pair is joined to the outside world. When a unit is dead after a new connection, it’s very often here: the jumper was never run, it went to the wrong pair, or it was put on a pair someone else was already using, which takes the neighbour’s service off at the same time.
Almost all of it comes down to records. Frames that have been worked on for years by different people, with nothing tagged and no record of which pair goes to which unit, are slow and expensive for every technician who opens them. A tagged frame and a jumper record turn an hour’s tracing into a few minutes. What goes wrong at the frame, from our own jobs.
The riser and the floor frames
From the main frame, the building’s cable climbs the riser to a small frame on each floor and on to each unit. Pairs corrode, get damaged in other trades’ work, or were joined between frames so that pair 6 on one floor is a different number in the basement, and the paperwork points at the wrong one. A line that tests fine at the main frame and fails at the unit is in this stretch, and it’s the building’s cable. A dead line in a new apartment, traced through three faults.
Where cables pass between floors
Every time someone runs a cable through a floor or a fire-rated wall, the hole they leave has to be sealed to keep the fire separation. Cable installs in risers and stairwells don’t always get that right. It’s worth asking your fire safety contractor to look at the riser penetrations at the next inspection, especially after any cabling work.
Inside the unit
Inside the front door is the owner’s: the sockets and the cable in the walls. Old phone sockets still connected to the line (a bridge tap) are the most common fault we find in units, and they’re easy to fix. Slow wifi in a block is very often crowding from dozens of neighbouring networks, not the line at all. What a bridge tap is, and wifi in a unit.
The lift phone
The lift’s emergency phone used to run on a copper phone line from the exchange, which kept working in a blackout. When the building went to the NBN, many lift phones were moved to small 3G units. Then the 3G networks closed: one in late 2023, the other two on 28 October 2024. Any lift phone still relying on a 3G-only unit or SIM stopped being able to call out.
Lift phones were about one in twelve of the jobs people asked us about from 2024 to 2026, and three in four of those came from businesses and strata. Most were found at the lift company’s inspection.
A lift phone can’t run on the building’s NBN: the call goes through a router, and in a blackout the router stops. It needs its own 4G unit with its own battery. SafeWork NSW says (opens in a new tab) a lift phone should keep working for at least two hours after a power outage. Check the SIM first, before replacing anything. What a 4G lift phone is, and what to check.
Several buildings on one site
Townhouse complexes, retirement villages and business parks have their own copper between the main frame and each building, and it’s the site’s. When it fails, it fails for a whole building at once. NBN cabling for sites and strata.
Walk the comms room once a year
The cheapest thing a committee can do is know what’s in the comms room before something breaks. Print this, take it down with the building manager, and fill it in. It takes twenty minutes and it saves every technician who comes after you an hour.
See the checklist
Comms room checklist
Building: ____________ Date: ________ Walked by: ____________
Access
- We know who holds the comms room key
- A spare key is somewhere the building manager can get it
- An after-hours contact is on the door
- The room isn't used for storage, and the frame can be reached
The main frame
- Every unit's pair is tagged at the frame
- There's a record of jumpers: which pair, which unit, who, when
- The frame is clean and dry, with no water marks or corrosion
- NBN's equipment has power and air around it
Risers and floors
- Each floor frame is labelled and its door closes
- Cable holes between floors look sealed (ask the fire safety contractor at the next inspection)
Lift phones
- Each lift has its own 4G unit
- Its SIM is on a plan that won't lapse, and we know the carrier
- A test call from the car was answered and heard (date: ______)
Records
- The building's cabling records are kept with the strata records
- We have a registered cabler's details for the building
From the free building manager's guide at secureacom.com.au/strata-building-internet-guide/
If the frame is a mess, nobody can say which pair is whose, or the lift phone hasn’t been tested since the 3G switch-off, that’s the job to book first. MDF work, from the frame to the unit.
Frequently asked questions
Who is responsible for internet cabling in a strata building?
Street to the frame is NBN's. From the frame to each unit's front door is the building's, usually common property. Inside the unit is the owner's.
Why is a unit's internet dead after a new connection?
Usually the jumper at the main frame: never run, on the wrong pair, or on a pair already in use. It's a quick fix when the frame is tagged and slow when it isn't.
Who needs access to the comms room?
Anyone fixing a unit's service, including NBN's and the provider's technicians. Make sure someone can open it, including after hours.
Does our lift phone still work after the 3G shutdown?
Only if it's on a 4G unit with a working SIM. Hold the emergency button and check the lift company's call centre answers and can hear you.
Can the lift phone run on the building's NBN?
No. It needs to work in a blackout, and an NBN or internet phone line stops when the power does. It needs its own 4G unit with a battery.
Need this fixed rather than explained?
This is written from the field. When the fault needs a technician on site, this is where to go next.