Changes to Our Terms and Policies

This policy explains how and when we change this Agreement, the policies in Section D, and our prices — the notice we give you, how we give it, where to find the current version of a document, and what rights you have when something changes.

It is the companion to the Changes we may make to this Agreement clause in Section A. That clause is the operative term; this policy explains how we apply it and adds detail about notice, publication and version history. If this policy and Section A ever appear to conflict, Section A prevails, and both are read subject to the Compliance with laws, codes and standards clause in Section A.

This policy applies to both Consumer Customers and Business Customers. Where a right described here comes from a consumer protection law or an ACMA-registered industry code or standard that only applies to certain customers, we say so.

We supply our Services using wholesale services from other carriers and carriage service providers, in a regulated industry that keeps moving. We may need to change this Agreement, a policy or a price because of:

(a) a change in law, an ACMA-registered industry code or standard, a regulator's determination or direction, or a technical standard we have to meet; (b) a change a Supplier makes to an underlying wholesale product — its terms, its features, its technology, or the fact that it is being withdrawn or replaced; (c) a change in the costs of supplying the Service, including wholesale charges, taxes, levies and third-party charges passed on to us; (d) a change to a product, plan, network, platform or business system of ours, including upgrades, migrations and the retirement of legacy plans and features; (e) a change we make to improve a Service, add a feature or benefit, or improve security and network integrity; or (f) correcting an error, ambiguity or omission in a document.

We only make changes for a reason of the kind described above, and we make the change no broader than reasonably necessary to deal with that reason.

If we make a change to this Agreement, to a policy in Section D, or to your plan that we reasonably consider will have a material detrimental impact on you, we will:

(a) give you at least 30 days' notice before the change takes effect; (b) tell you clearly what is changing, when it takes effect, and why; (c) tell you that you may cancel the affected Service without paying an early termination Charge, and how to do that; and (d) not apply the change to you before the notice period has run.

You may cancel the affected Service by telling us within 42 days after the date we notify you of the change. That is your exit window, and it runs from the date of our notice rather than the date the change takes effect, so you have time to consider it. How to exercise the right, and what you still have to pay, is set out in the Your right to leave if you don't agree clause of this policy.

In deciding whether a change has a material detrimental impact, we look at the change from your point of view — including its effect on price, speed, data, coverage, included features and the way you actually use the Service — and we take account of the guidance in the applicable ACMA-registered industry code or standard. If we are unsure, we treat the change as detrimental and give you the notice and exit right described above.

Where a change is required by law, by an ACMA-registered industry code or standard, by a court, or by a direction, determination or request of a regulator or government agency, we will make the change and notify you as soon as reasonably practicable.

Notice for this kind of change may be shorter than 30 days, and occasionally a change has to take effect immediately — for example where it is needed to comply with a legal obligation from a set date, to protect the security or integrity of a network, or to keep emergency call access working. Where that happens we will tell you as soon as we can afterwards and explain what changed and why.

We will not use this clause to make a commercial change we simply prefer. It is limited to changes we are actually required to make, and we will say in the notice what the requirement is.

We may make a change without giving you individual notice where it does not have a detrimental impact on you. Examples include:

(a) formatting, numbering, structural and plain-language changes that do not change meaning; (b) clarifying how an existing term already operates; (c) correcting a typographical error, a wrong cross-reference, an out-of-date contact detail, or a reference to a law, code or standard that has been renamed, remade or replaced; (d) adding a feature, benefit, inclusion or self-service option at no extra cost to you; and (e) removing a term or Charge that no longer applies.

Changes of this kind take effect when we publish the updated document. They are still recorded in our change log, so you can always see what moved and when. If you think we have treated a change as minor when it was actually detrimental to you, tell us — we will review it, and you can complain under our Complaints Handling Policy.

We will not rely on a variation right in this Agreement to introduce or rely on a term that would be an unfair contract term under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)). A variation right is not a way around the unfair contract terms regime, and we do not treat it as one.

We will not use a variation right to make a change that a law, an ACMA-registered industry code or standard, or a regulator's determination prohibits, or that would remove or reduce a protection that such an instrument gives you.

We will not use a variation right to:

(a) change a term retrospectively, so that something you already did or paid for is treated differently after the fact; (b) take away a right or remedy you have under a law that cannot be excluded, including the consumer guarantees; or (c) avoid an obligation we already owe you, including an obligation under an approved financial hardship arrangement.

Where we exercise a right to change something, we will do so reasonably and only to the extent necessary to address the reason for the change.

Where we give you individual notice of a change, we will use one or more of:

(a) email to the email address on your account; (b) SMS to the mobile number on your account; (c) a message on or with your bill; or (d) a message in your online account or customer portal.

We will use the most recent contact details you have given us, and a notice is taken to be given when we send it to those details. You must keep your contact details current and tell us when they change — you can update them in your online account or by contacting us on 1300 994 884. If your details are out of date and you miss a notice, the change still applies, but tell us as soon as you find out and we will work through it with you fairly.

For a change with a material detrimental impact we will use a channel that is directed to you personally, not just a notice on our website. We will also publish the change on our website.

If you need notices in a particular format or through a particular channel because of accessibility or language needs, tell us and we will do our best to accommodate it.

The current version of this Agreement and of each policy in Section D is published at lightningip.com.au. The published version is the master copy — if a printed or forwarded copy differs from it, the published version applies, subject to any term that was specific to your plan when you signed up.

Every document carries a version label and an effective date, so you can tell which version you are reading and when it started to apply.

You can ask us at any time for:

(a) a copy of the version of a document that applied on a particular date, or that applied when you took up your Service; (b) a copy of a document in an accessible format, or in large print; and (c) a plain summary of a change if the notice we gave you was not clear enough.

We provide these free of charge. Contact us on 1300 994 884 or through the contact channels published at lightningip.com.au.

We keep a change log for this Agreement and for each policy in Section D. For each change it records the version, the effective date, a short description of what changed, and whether we gave individual notice.

The change log is published with the documents at lightningip.com.au, and we keep superseded versions so that the terms that applied at a point in time can be identified.

We do this because you should be able to check what your terms said when you signed up, and because we are required to be able to show what we told customers and when. If you cannot find what you are looking for in the change log, ask us and we will find it for you.

If we notify you of a change that has a material detrimental impact on you, you may cancel the affected Service without paying an early termination Charge. To do that, tell us within 42 days after the date of our notice, by:

(a) the method set out in the notice we sent you; (b) calling us on 1300 994 884; or (c) any other contact channel published at lightningip.com.au.

If you exercise this right, you still need to pay:

(a) Charges for the Service up to the date it is cancelled, including usage; (b) any amount already outstanding on your account; (c) any unpaid balance for Equipment you have received, including instalments under the Equipment you pay off over the term of your plan clause of our Equipment Warranty and Returns Policy; and (d) any Charge for installation or work already performed at your request.

You also need to return any Equipment that remains our property, as described in our Equipment Warranty and Returns Policy. What we will not charge you is an early termination Charge for ending the Minimum Term early.

Cancelling a Service means the Service stops. If you want to keep a phone number or move to another provider, arrange the transfer before you cancel — the churn and porting terms in Section C explain how that works.

If you do not cancel the affected Service within your exit window and you continue to use the Service on or after the date a change takes effect, the change applies to you and this Agreement is read as amended from that date.

This does not affect:

(a) your right to complain about the change at any time under our Complaints Handling Policy, or to take the matter to the TIO; (b) any right you have under a law that cannot be excluded; or (c) your ordinary right to cancel your Service later under Section A, which may involve an early termination Charge if you are inside a Minimum Term.

If you told us within your exit window that you wanted to cancel and we did not action it, the change does not apply to you and we will put things right.

The policies in Section D form part of this Agreement, but each one can be updated on its own. We do that so a policy can be kept current — for example when a hardship or complaints standard changes — without reissuing the whole document set.

A change to a policy in Section D that we reasonably consider will have a material detrimental impact on you is treated exactly the same way as a change to the Agreement itself: at least 30 days' notice, an explanation of what is changing, and the exit right described in this policy.

Where a policy change is required by law or a regulator, or is minor or administrative, the corresponding clause of this policy applies.

If a Section D policy and Section A conflict on the same subject, Section A prevails, except where the policy gives you a greater protection or benefit — in which case the policy applies.

Amounts of money are not set out in this policy. The Charges that apply to you are in your Critical Information Summary and in our price list published at lightningip.com.au.

If we increase a recurring Charge for your plan, or introduce a new Charge that applies to you, we treat that as a change with a material detrimental impact: we will give you at least 30 days' notice, tell you the new amount and when it starts, and you will have the exit right described in this policy.

If you are within a Minimum Term, we will not increase the recurring Charge for your plan during that term unless your Critical Information Summary expressly says that it can change and explains how. Where your Critical Information Summary does allow an in-term change, we will still give you the notice and exit right described in this policy.

We will tell you if a change reduces what you pay or adds an inclusion at no extra cost, but we do not need to give you 30 days' notice before doing something in your favour.

Some Charges are usage-based and are set by reference to rates published in our price list rather than in your plan. These include international call and SMS rates, mobile roaming rates, calls to premium and special-rate numbers, and other charges a Supplier or third-party carrier passes through to us.

These rates can change at short notice because they depend on other carriers, on foreign operators, and on wholesale arrangements we do not control. Where that happens:

(a) we will publish the updated rates at lightningip.com.au before they take effect wherever we are able to; (b) we will give you notice of an increase in a rate you have actually been using, using the channels described in this policy, as soon as reasonably practicable; and (c) the rate that applies to a particular use is the rate published at the time you use the Service.

International and roaming rates are not included in any plan inclusion unless your Critical Information Summary says so. If you want to avoid unexpected charges, ask us about barring international calls or roaming on your Service — we will do that for you at no cost.

A change in a tax, levy or regulatory charge that we are required to pass on will be applied and notified in the same way, and we will only pass on the actual amount.

If a notice is unclear, or you want to understand how a change affects your plan, contact us on 1300 994 884 or through the contact channels published at lightningip.com.au. We will explain the change in plain language, tell you whether you have an exit right, and tell you what your options are — including moving to a different plan if that suits you better.

If you think we have made a change we were not entitled to make, given you the wrong notice, or treated a detrimental change as a minor one, you can make a complaint. Our Complaints Handling Policy sets out how we handle complaints, the timeframes we work to, and how to escalate.

You can contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman at any time. The TIO is a free and independent dispute resolution service, and its contact details are in our Complaints Handling Policy, on your bill and on our website.

If a change means you are struggling to pay for your Service, talk to us about our Financial Hardship Policy before you cancel. There is usually something we can do.