The Sky Muster® service is designed by nbn® co to provide rural and remote Australians with access to satellite broadband including islands such as Cocos Islands, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island

A satellite dish is installed on your roof and connects your premises to the nbn® network via one of the Sky Muster® satellites in orbit. An nbn® network termination device is installed where the cable from the roof enters your premises. This device requires power to operate, and can only be installed by an nbn® co approved technician.

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.

Otherwise, nbn® co will arrange for one of its technicians to install the equipment. If an appointment is required, nbn® co has service level targets depending on your location and will aim to complete a Standard Installation within 20 Business Days of Skymesh processing your application. In isolated regions on the mainland and in Tasmania, it may take nbn® co up to 35 Business Days. For limited access areas, including those which are only accessible by air or water, nbn® co has a target of 90 Business Days.

Once nbn® co has installed all of the connecting equipment required to successfully connect your premises to the nbn® network, we’ll then need to activate your new Skymesh service and this typically takes 1 or 2 Business Days.

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 premise 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.

IP Address Scheme for Sky Muster®

Skymesh allocates each service with a public IPv4 address. Allocations are static but we reserve the right to change them from time to time, including during monthly CVC migrations that may be required to comply with nbn® co’s Fair Use Policy.

IP Address Scheme for Sky Muster® Plus

For each new service, nbn® co allocates a public IPv4 address and a private IPv4 address for each requesting router. nbn® co links the public address with each private address using Public Dynamic Network Address Translation (NAT) Overload.

From time to time, and at its own discretion, nbn® co may change the public address allocated to each service.

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 or the Sky Muster® 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.

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

Sky Muster® Shaping Policy

If you exceed your Anytime (Normal) Data Allowance during a Billing Period, your service will be speed limited (shaped) for the remainder of that Billing Period, except during Off Peak Hours if you have remaining Off Peak (Bonus) Data available. Shaping affects all network traffic.

Shaped services are speed limited to less than 256/256 kbps except for plans with Basic Evening Speed or Standard Evening Speed which are reduced to less than 128/128 kbps instead. Shaping and unshaping does not occur instantaneously and may take over an hour to be effected by our systems.

The start of metering for Peak Hours and the start of metering for Off-peak Hours is not instantaneous. These metering transitions usually take less than 30 minutes but are performed on a best-effort basis only.

We do not charge for Excess Data Usage.

Sky Muster® Plus Shaping Policy

Your network traffic is profiled and speed limited (shaped) by nbn® co according to its shaping policy and traffic profiles. During Peak Hours (4pm to Midnight), any of your traffic that matches Traffic Profile 1 (video streaming and VPN) will be classed as Metered Content counted against your Peak Data Allowance.

If you exceed your Peak Data Allowance, Metered Content will be shaped to less than 512/256 kbps during Peak Hours until the end of the calendar month.

The traffic profiles and shaping policy are governed by nbn® co, not Skymesh, and the policy may change from time to time. nbn® co may start shaping Traffic Profile 2 (peer-to-peer; cloud storage; software, gaming and operating system updates; and other application-related data that nbn® co cannot identify) to 256 kbps.

Peak Hours and Off-Peak Hours are defined by nbn® co and apply to the time zone in which your service is located.

Capacity on the nbn® satellite network is finite so nbn® co has fair-use policies in place in order to help ensure fair access to the network, especially during busy times.

Sky Muster® Fair Use Policy

nbn® co requires customers to limit their Data Usage to no more than 150 GB (300 GB from 1 October 2017) in any four week period. Furthermore, Peak Hour Data Usage is limited to no more than 75 GB (150 GB from 1 October 2017) in any four week period.  nbn® co defines Peak Hours as from 7:00 am to 1:00 am the following day.

nbn® co also requires each service provider (including Skymesh) to limit its Peak Hour Data Usage per customer to an average of no more than 30 GB (45 GB from 1 October 2017) of downloads and no more than 5 GB (does not change on 1 October 2017) of uploads in any four week period. As a result of this policy, our broadband plans with smaller data allowances represent better value than those with larger ones. And unlike other services with unmetered Netflix, all Netflix traffic is metered on the Sky Muster® service.

Sky Muster® Plus Fair Use Policy

nbn® co developed a Fair Use Policy for Sky Muster® Plus and there are certain restrictions on the service.

Although you’re unlikely to bump into any of these restrictions, nbn® co’s policy forbids routine emails over 20 MB in size, operating system updates for more than 20 devices each calendar month and excessive, automated scraping of websites.

The service must not be used to exceed the Peak Data Allowance by more than 30 GB each calendar month.

Services must not be used to connect neighbouring premises; support carrier or service provider data aggregation applications that result in substantial and continuous network throughput; support a carrier or service provider interconnection; bypass the application of shaping by being disconnected and reactivated; or match a traffic profile not intended by nbn® co. Network bonding or load sharing of multiple services is forbidden by nbn® co.

Rule violations may lead to lead to nbn® co deprioritising your traffic, negatively affecting your data speed, or Skymesh suspending your service.

nbn® co does not offer a battery backup service for end-users on the nbn® satellite 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 the ability to make emergency phone calls. Depending on reception, keeping a charged mobile phone close by maybe one way of maintaining that ability.

The rollout of the nbn® network involves new technologies. Some of your existing devices may rely on legacy technologies and may not work with the technology that nbn® co chose to roll out in your area.

It’s important to contact each device provider to discuss your needs and find out whether your devices can be migrated to the nbn® network and, if not, what alternatives may be available.

Skymesh does not provide support or compatibility information for specialised devices and services such as: medical alarms, autodiallers and emergency call buttons; monitored fire alarms; security monitoring systems; teletypewriter devices and EFTPOS terminals.

If you use a medical alarm, we recommend that you register it on nbn® co’s website.

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. No Sky Muster® or Sky Muster® Plus service supports Priority Assistance. Telephony services with Priority Assistance can be obtained from Telstra.

The legacy copper network in Sky Muster® 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 Sky Muster® 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.

Data Blocks are currently available for both Sky Muster and Sky Muster Plus services.