Fixed Wireless technology is typically used outside of urban centres where premises are spread out geographically over many square kilometres. An antenna is installed on your roof and connects your premises to the nbn® network via a transmission tower up to 14 km away.

Connecting equipment also needs to be installed at the point where the cable from the rooftop antenna enters your premises. The connecting equipment requires power to operate and can only be installed by a technician certified and approved by nbn co.

If nbn co has already installed all of the connecting equipment required to successfully connect your premises to the nbn® network, your new Skymesh service will typically be activated within 2 Business Days of us processing your application. Applications are processed by us as soon as possible upon receipt but some may take longer than usual.

If an installer needs to attend, we will book an appointment with nbn co. nbn co will then arrange for one of its technicians test the signal level at your premises and install the equipment. If there is enough signal, the technician may install the antenna on your roof, under the eaves or on a wall. nbn co typically installs the connecting equipment within 20 Business Days. Once installed, we’ll then need to activate your new Skymesh service and this typically happens within 1 Business Day.

nbn co’s New Developments Charge
In line with the Australian Government’s Telecommunications Infrastructure in New Developments Policy, nbn co implemented the New Developments Charge on 2 April 2016. A premises identified by nbn co as a New Development Location is subject to nbn co’s once-off New Developments Charge if the premises has never had an active nbn® service. Despite its name, the New Developments Charge also applies to New Development Locations that were built years ago. It even applies to premises where nbn co has already installed the equipment necessary to connect the premises to the nbn® network.

The New Developments Charge does not apply if there has been already been an active nbn® service connected at the premises, and it doesn’t apply if the premises hasn’t been identified by nbn co as a New Development Location.

IPv4 and IPv6 Connectivity
Your service will be assigned one, public, IPv4 address and a /56 pool of IPv6 addresses. Each requesting router or MAC address is assigned a /60 prefix of IPv6 addresses from that pool. All IP address assignments are fixed but we reserve the right to change assignments for capacity management from time to time.

The speed of your service may be affected by a range of factors:

• Environmental: overgrown vegetation, new buildings, sun fade, rain fade and severe weather.
• Hardware: the inherent performance of your computer and other network equipment such as your modem, router or access point; and the length and quality of your cabling.
• Software: the configuration of your operating system, network stack, online application and network equipment such as your modem, router or access point.
• Electromagnetic interference: noise from other Wi-Fi networks, faulty power supplies or other faulty equipment may interfere with your own Wi-Fi network, nbn® Fixed Wireless signal.
• Overutilisation: too many active devices sharing your service can result in your devices being starved of enough bandwidth to operate properly.
• Congestion: peak traffic in the evenings and Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
• Faults: equipment failures, backhaul fibre cuts, undersea cable breaks and routing issues can affect the flow of local and international traffic.
• Content: third-party content servers may only allocate you with a limited amount of bandwidth.
• Overheads: depending on the network protocols that you use, a percentage of your service bandwidth may be used for the transfer of non-payload data.
• Incomplete upgrades: nbn co may may not have overdue completed network capacity upgrades in your area.

Please note that the actual effect of all of these factors on your service may not be ascertained until after the service is activated.

Exceeding your Data Allowance
If your Plan has a Data Allowance and you exceed it, the information rate of your service will be limited to no more than 256/256 kbps (Speed Limiting). Limitless Plans do not have Data Allowances.

Speed Limiting affects all network traffic. The application and removal of Speed Limiting does not occur instantaneously and may take over an hour to be effected by our systems.

We do not charge for Excess Data Usage.

Capacity on the nbn™ fixed wireless network is finite and nbn co is responsible for upgrading the network to meet current and future demands on that capacity. In areas where the company does not satisfy the current demand for capacity, service speeds may be significantly degraded.

nbn co is currently prioritising network capacity upgrades in areas where the average download speed is around 6 Mbps or lower during peak hours. If your service is in an area with this issue, some of your online applications may not work with good quality or be unusable. We will notify you if nbn co indicates to us that your service may be affected.

Although nbn co does not publish detailed information about its upgrade program, the list of congested areas or the list of affected premises, it does include some information in its Monthly Progress Reports.

Please note that the actual effect of any congestion on the nbn™ network on your service can not be ascertained until after your service is activated.

nbn co does not offer a battery backup service for end users on the nbn® Fixed Wireless network. Therefore, during mains power disruptions, you will not be able to use your service or make emergency phone calls with it.

We strongly recommended that you always ensure you have ability to make emergency phone calls. Keeping a charged mobile phone close by may be one way of maintaining that ability.

The rollo

If you need standard telephone service but have a life-threatening medical condition, or live with someone that does, please seek a provider that can offer you a service with Priority Assistance. Skymesh does not offer standard telephone services with Priority Assistance but you can obtain such a service from Telstra Corporation Limited.

The legacy copper network in nbn® Fixed Wireless areas will not be switched off due to the rollout of the nbn® network. However, it is still possible that your existing phone or broadband provider will switch off its network in your area due to other reasons.

Customers in nbn® Fixed Wireless areas generally have the choice to keep their existing landline phone service  over the copper network active, or switch over to a voice service  on the nbn® network. Please note that although voice services are not bundled with our broadband services, they can be purchased separately.

See nbn co’s website at https://www.nbnco.com.au/ for more information about the switch off.