UPDATE 11.45AM: Paymark customers are back online after a Telecom fault cut services earlier today.

A power outage that occurred in Auckland affected Telecom's Retail Zone connectivity, which is how Telecom connects some retailers to the payments network.

'At our end it was quite a small issue within one of our data centres but one of the small number of customers affected was Paymark,” says Telecom spokesperson Kate Woodruffe.

'I can confirm paymark was impacted but can't comment on which, how many, or where Paymark customers were impacted.”

The fault occurred at 7am and was resolved by 10am, says Kate.