nbn Satellite Fair Use Policy FAQ

This information applies to nbn Satellite services provided by iiNet before 6 December 2023.

nbn® has created a Fair Use Policy to help protect national service quality on the nbn Satellite network.

Please note that this Fair Use Policy enforcement is implemented at a wholesale level, which means it applies to all the nbn Satellite services nationwide including iiNet and any other retail service provider of nbn Satellite services. iiNet does not have the ability to remove or change any speed restrictions that nbn® applies.

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nbn®'s Satellite Fair Use Policy applies the following rules for data usage:

  • Individual services may not exceed 150GB of peak period (7AM-1AM) usage over any 4 week rolling period.
  • Individual services may not exceed 300GB of off-peak period (1AM-7AM) usage over any 4 week rolling period.

It's important to monitor your usage to avoid getting a temporary speed restriction under the nbn Satellite Fair Use Policy.

 

  • nbn® will restrict the speed of your nbn Satellite service to 256/256kbps and will continue to do so until your usage is compliant with the nbn Satellite Fair Use Policy. iiNet has no ability to remove or change this restriction.
  • This is not the same as being shaped by us for using all of your monthly data. Your service may be restricted under the nbn Satellite Fair Use Policy even if you have not used all of your monthly data.
  • Severe or continual breaches of the Fair Use Policy may result in the suspension or termination of your service by nbn®.

 

To reduce the risk of customers getting restricted under the nbn Satellite Fair Use Policy, iiNet nbn Satellite plans are designed to give customers "safe" amounts of monthly data at a great-value price.

While other providers may offer plans with larger quotas, you should be wary of these because usage is measured over a rolling 4 week period rather than a calendar month. With faster speeds than older satellite technologies, if your usage is particularly high during the beginning or end of any monthly billing cycle, you may get restricted under the nbn Satellite Fair Use Policy if you do not monitor your usage.

 

We've broken down the peak period data (7AM-1AM) in our plans to show one example of how much time you could spend on certain online activities each week.

We've calculated this example based on the typical percentage of broadband data the average household uses on a range of common online activities - you may choose to spend more or less time on different activities, and your actual experience may differ depending on the amount of data required by any one activity such as varying download/upload size and image/video quality.

Online activity Avg. % monthly data used for activity Estimated data per hour for activity Example of usage in a typical week
30GB monthly peak data plan 45GB monthly peak data plan 60GB monthly peak data plan
Web browsing and emails 10% 0.09GB/hour 8.3 hours/week 12.5 hours/week 16.66 hours/week
Standard High Definition (720p) video streaming
(e.g. Netflix on 'Medium' quality setting)		 60% 1GB/hour 4.5 hours/week 6.75 hours/week 9 hours/week
Low Definition (480p) video streaming
(e.g. YouTube on 480p quality)		 17% 0.3GB/hour 4.25 hours/week 6.37 hours/week 8.5 hours/week
Social media browsing and messaging (excludes video) 7% 0.12GB/hour 4.37 hours/week 6.56 hours/week 8.75 hours/week
Video calls (e.g. Skype) 4% 0.5GB/hour 36 minutes/week 54 minutes/week 72 minutes/week

Applications that require a low latency (i.e. small delay in the time to transfer data from source to destination) such as online gaming have not been included in this example because they are not recommended over an nbn Satellite connection. It is unlikely that the latency which is possible to achieve over any satellite connection will provide a satisfactory gaming experience.

 

The best way to monitor your usage is through Toolbox. If you're not sure how to do this, please see Checking your broadband usage in Toolbox.

There are also many software applications available to help you do monitor your usage (both free and paid) however these software applications typically do not measure the usage of every device connected to your NBN Satellite broadband, such as computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets and other WiFi devices. Toolbox is a more reliable option because it shows all of your usage in once place - you can even see your usage broken down to a daily view.

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