NBN explained
What is NBN fibre to the node (FTTN), and why does it drop out?
Fibre to the node means fibre runs to a cabinet in your neighbourhood and the old phone line carries the internet the rest of the way to your house. How well it works comes down to that phone line: how long it is, and what condition it is in.
What fibre to the node is
Fibre to the node (FTTN) is the type of NBN where fibre runs from the network to a cabinet in your neighbourhood, called the node, and the existing copper phone line carries the internet from that cabinet to your house. It was built this way because the phone lines were already in the ground, which made it quicker and cheaper to roll out than running new fibre to every home.
So the first part of your connection is modern fibre and the last part is the same pair of copper wires that used to carry your home phone. That copper may have been in the ground for decades, and when it lets you down, finding which part has failed is the job of an NBN technician.
How fibre to the node reaches your house
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Fibre to the node
Fibre runs from the NBN network to a cabinet on a street near you. One node serves the homes around it.
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Copper to your house
From the node, the signal travels along the old phone line: through the pits and joints in the street, along the lead-in cable to your house, and to the first phone socket.
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The modem on the phone socket
There is no NBN box inside. Your modem plugs straight into a phone socket and makes the connection itself. It has to be a modem built for this kind of line, called VDSL2.
Why fibre to the node is the least liked NBN connection
Fibre to the node has the longest run of old copper of any NBN type, and everything that is wrong with it comes from that.
The further from the node, the slower the line
A signal fades as it travels along copper. The trade word is line attenuation: the loss of signal strength over the length of the cable. Fibre barely has it. Copper has a lot of it.
That means distance from the node sets the top speed your line can ever reach. A house a few hundred metres from its node can get close to the best this technology offers. A house at the far end of a long run gets a fraction of it, and no plan, provider or modem changes that. It is also why fibre to the node cannot take the fastest NBN plans at all.
Swipe the street sideways to follow the line to the far house.
Close to the node, the signal reaches the house at close to full strength, so the line can get near the best this technology offers.
At the far end of a long run the same signal arrives much weaker, and no plan, provider or modem changes that.
After rain, water in one joint on the way breaks the signal up, and the modem keeps losing its connection until things dry out.
The copper is old, and so are the pits and joints
The phone line to your house is not one length of cable. It is a chain of cables joined together in pits along the street, and each joint is a place where water and corrosion can get in.
We open a lot of those pits. What we find, again and again, is joints that have been wet for years, and older joints sealed with a gel that has broken down the insulation on the wires it was meant to protect. Some have been bypassed and wrapped in plastic and tape as a quick fix, which keeps the rain out for a while and then does not.
A line like that works on a dry day and drops out on a wet one, or runs slower every year as the joints get worse. More on that in how the weather affects your phone and internet. Where the worn-out part is the lead-in on your side of the boundary, a new lead-in cable takes it out of the line for good.
This is what that looks like in a street pit in Newtown after a run of rain: the pit full of water and mud, and the joint on the line sitting in it with its cover off. It’s the copper most fibre to the node homes still rely on.
Watch: The State Of NBN Fibre To The Node FTTN In Sydney
Your own wiring is part of the line
On fibre to the node, the signal does not stop at the outside wall. It runs on through the phone wiring inside your house to whichever socket the modem is plugged into. So every old phone socket still connected to that line, every corroded connection and every cheap wall plate is part of your internet connection. An extra socket still on the line is called a bridge tap, and it can take a large slice of your speed or cause dropouts on its own. More in what a bridge tap is. If the home phone crackles as well, the fault is on the copper pair itself, and a phone line repair is the same testing.
Common fibre to the node problems, and whose they are
| What you see | What it usually points to | Whose side |
|---|---|---|
| Drops out when it rains or after rain | Water in a joint in the street, in the lead-in, or in an outside socket | Usually the network side; sometimes your lead-in or socket |
| Drops out in the afternoon heat | A joint that opens up as it warms | Either side. It needs testing |
| Slower than the neighbours on the same plan | Old phone sockets still on the line inside, or a longer or poorer line | Often your side |
| Slow all the time, and always has been | The distance from the node | The network. The line cannot do more |
| Fine on a cable, poor on WiFi | The modem's WiFi or where the modem sits | Your side, and not the line at all |
| Crackle on the home phone as well | A fault on the copper pair | Either side. It needs testing |
The line between your side and NBN’s side matters, because it decides who fixes the fault and who pays. On fibre to the node the boundary is at the first socket or the point where the lead-in arrives, and everything past it inside the house is yours. If you are told the fault is in your home’s wiring, that can be tested rather than argued about, and an independent NBN technician is who tests it. Where the dropouts follow the weather, see how an NBN fault gets repaired and why your NBN keeps dropping out. Our study of NBN faults and internal wiring shows how often that call turns out to be wrong.
What to check before you ring anyone
- Plug the modem into the first socket. That is the one where the line comes into the house. Skip extension leads, splitters and old filters. If the first socket is in the wrong room, a socket can be put where the modem needs to be, wired as the first on the line.
- Unplug everything else from the phone sockets. Old phones, fax machines and alarm diallers all sit on the same line.
- Check the modem is a VDSL2 modem and that it is not many years old. What to look for in a modem for NBN covers it.
- Test on a cable. If a laptop plugged into the modem is steady and fast, the line is fine and the WiFi is the problem.
- Write down when it drops. Rain, heat, a time of day. The pattern is the best evidence you can give your provider.
Can you get off fibre to the node?
Most homes will be able to. In September 2025 NBN began the final stage of replacing fibre to the node with fibre to the premises: it aims to offer the upgrade to more than 95% of the roughly 622,000 homes and businesses still on fibre to the node. NBN’s address checker (opens in a new tab) says whether yours is eligible yet, and the terms are NBN’s to state.
If your address is eligible, the upgrade takes the old copper out of your connection altogether, along with distance, wet joints and old sockets as causes. The one decision worth getting right first is where the new NBN box goes. See our FTTP upgrade page for that, and the fibre to the premises upgrade explained for how the changeover works.
If your address is not eligible yet, the line you have can still be made as good as it can be: the old sockets taken off, the joints on your side remade, and the modem on the first socket. To see how fibre to the node compares with the other types, see which NBN connection is best.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a special modem for fibre to the node?
Yes. Fibre to the node has no NBN box inside the house, so the modem does that job itself. It has to be a VDSL2 modem router, which plugs straight into the phone socket. A router that only has a network port for its internet connection will not work on fibre to the node on its own.
Why is my fibre to the node internet slower than my neighbour's?
Usually the copper. Two houses in the same street can sit on lines of different length and condition, and inside each house the wiring is different again. Old phone sockets still connected to the line, a corroded joint or a long run from the node will each take speed off one house and not the other.
Why does my FTTN internet drop out when it rains?
Water is getting into the copper somewhere: a joint in a pit in the street, the lead-in to the house, or a socket on an outside wall. A wet joint lets the signal leak, the modem loses its connection, and it comes back when things dry out. Dropouts that follow the weather are a line fault, not a WiFi fault.
Can I upgrade from fibre to the node to fibre to the premises?
Most will be offered it. In September 2025 NBN began the final stage of its fibre to the node upgrades, which aims to offer fibre to the premises to more than 95% of the roughly 622,000 homes and businesses still on fibre to the node. NBN's address checker says whether your address is eligible yet, and the terms are NBN's to state.
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.