Coverage and Service Availability Disclosure

This disclosure explains what affects the performance and availability of the Services we supply, so you can form a realistic expectation before you buy and know what to check if something is not working as you expect.

We resell services over networks owned and operated by others — nbn broadband and Enterprise Fibre over the nbn network, Enterprise Fibre also over Telstra Wholesale Ethernet Access, mobile Services over the Telstra Wholesale Mobile Network, and our 4G Backup Service over the Optus network. Our Hosted Voice Service runs on our own IP Voice platform, but the internet connection carrying it may be ours or another provider's.

Lightning IP uses the Telstra Wholesale Mobile Network. You can learn more about it at www.telstrawholesale.com.au/mobile-network.

This document forms part of Section D of our Standard Form of Agreement. It does not limit your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, and nothing in it is intended to excuse a Service that is genuinely not fit for purpose — see Your rights if the Service is not fit for purpose.

Availability is determined address by address and technology by technology. Before we accept an order we carry out a service qualification using information from our Suppliers, based on the address and, for nbn, the location identifier for your premises. That check tells us which access technology serves your address, whether a Service can be ordered, and what plans and speeds may be available there.

A qualification result is indicative. It is based on information supplied to us and is our honest best indication at the time. It is not a guarantee, and it can change or turn out to be wrong, because:

(a) the Supplier's records for an address can be incomplete or out of date, particularly for units, subdivided lots, new developments and rural addresses; (b) the wrong premises can be identified where an address is ambiguous; (c) network build, capacity, technology upgrades or a Supplier's own processes can change what is deliverable; and (d) some limitations are only discovered when a technician attends or the Service is activated.

If your Service turns out not to be deliverable. If, after you order, we find that the Service cannot be delivered at your address, or cannot be delivered on the plan you ordered, or cannot be delivered without work or charges we did not tell you about, we will contact you promptly and explain the position. You may then:

(e) choose an alternative Service or plan we can deliver at your address; (f) wait, if the obstacle is expected to be resolved (for example a network build or a Supplier remediation); or (g) cancel the order at no cost.

If you cancel in these circumstances, or we cannot supply, we will not charge you an early termination charge and we will refund any Charges you have paid for the Service that was not delivered, including any connection Charge, within a reasonable time. If Equipment has already been sent to you, we will ask you to return it — see the Equipment we supply clause in Section A. Any amounts payable are set out in your Critical Information Summary and our price list, not in this document.

Where your order requires new or non-standard installation work at your premises, or work by a third party such as a body corporate or building owner, we will tell you what we know before you commit, and any additional Charges will be quoted to you for your agreement before the work goes ahead.

The speed in an nbn plan name (for example a 100/20 plan) is the maximum line rate for that wholesale speed tier — the fastest the connection can theoretically carry data. It is not a guaranteed speed, an average speed, or a speed we promise you will receive at any given moment.

The number that tells you what to expect is the typical busy period speed we publish for each plan. We measure and publish that figure for the busy evening period (7pm to 11pm), and it appears in your Critical Information Summary and in the Key Facts Sheet for the plan, as required by the Telecommunications (NBN Consumer Information) Industry Standard 2018. We will give you those documents before you commit, and they are published at lightningip.com.au.

Upload speeds are much lower than download speeds on most plans, and the upload figure is part of the speed tier — it matters for video calls, cloud backups and sending large files.

For nbn Enterprise Ethernet Services supplied to Business Customers, the applicable bandwidth, and any availability or performance commitment that applies to it, are set out in your Critical Information Summary or service schedule. Unless we have expressly given you a written performance commitment for a Service, we do not warrant a particular throughput, latency or availability level.

We do not measure or promise speeds to a particular website, application or destination. Our responsibility is for the Service we supply up to the point where it hands off to the rest of the internet.

The speed you actually experience at any moment is the result of several things, most of them between your device and the content you are using:

(a) the nbn access technology at your address — FTTP and HFC can generally carry the highest speed tiers; FTTN, FTTB and FTTC depend on copper and are limited by the length and condition of that copper; Fixed Wireless and Satellite have their own capacity and weather-related limits, and Satellite has high latency that affects video calls and gaming; (b) the wiring inside your premises — old, damaged, split or extended internal cabling is a common cause of slow or unstable FTTN, FTTB and FTTC connections, and cabling inside your premises is your responsibility (see the Equipment and customer cabling section of Section C); (c) your Wi-Fi — distance from the router, walls, floors, interference from neighbouring networks and appliances, and older Wi-Fi standards will often limit you well below your plan speed. A wired connection is almost always faster than Wi-Fi; (d) your equipment and devices — an older modem or router, a device with an older network adapter, a device short of memory or running many applications, or a VPN or security product, will each cap what you see; (e) the website, application or service you are using — a slow or busy remote server, or the path across the internet to reach it, limits your speed regardless of your plan; (f) how many people and devices are using your connection at once, and what they are doing; (g) congestion on shared infrastructure — see the Shared and contended infrastructure clause below; and (h) the time of day — evenings are the busiest period on every network.

We will help you work through these. The What we will ask you to check first clause below sets out the practical steps, and the Faults and service assurance section of Section C explains how we handle a fault once we find one.

On FTTN, FTTB and FTTC connections, part of the path to your premises is copper. The speed those connections can achieve depends on the length and condition of that copper, the quality of the joints, moisture, and the wiring inside your premises. As a result:

(a) the achievable speed on an FTTN, FTTB or FTTC line cannot be confirmed before activation. Any pre-sale estimate is indicative only. The line rate your connection can actually sustain is only known once the Service is active and the equipment has stabilised, which usually takes a few days; (b) a line may not be able to reach the maximum line rate of the speed tier you ordered, even where the qualification indicated it might; and (c) speed can change over time as copper conditions change, and can be affected by faults in the network or in your premises.

If your line cannot achieve the plan speed. Where, after activation and a reasonable period of testing and troubleshooting, your connection cannot sustain a speed near the maximum line rate of your plan, we will tell you what your line can achieve and offer you the following, at your choice:

(d) move you to a lower speed plan that your line can support, with the Charges adjusted from the date of the change, and we will credit or refund the difference in Charges you have paid for the higher speed tier since activation; (e) leave your plan as it is, if you prefer, once we have told you plainly what your line can achieve; or (f) cancel the affected Service without an early termination charge, and return any Equipment supplied on a plan-linked basis.

We will not charge a plan change fee for a change made under this clause, and we will make the change as soon as reasonably practicable after we have told you the result.

Migration remedies. Where your Service has been migrated to the nbn network, or moved between access technologies, and the new Service cannot achieve what the previous service did or cannot be delivered at all, the remedy framework agreed between the network operator and providers may allow additional remediation, an alternative technology or an interim service. We will tell you what remedy pathway is available for your situation, pursue it with our Supplier on your behalf, and keep you informed. We cannot commit to the outcome of a remediation carried out by the network operator, but we will not leave you to chase it yourself.

Your other rights are unaffected. A line that cannot deliver anything close to what you were sold may also be a failure of a consumer guarantee — see the Your rights if the Service is not fit for purpose clause below.

Our mobile Services run over the Telstra Wholesale Mobile Network. Our 4G Backup Service runs over the Optus network. This matters when you are judging coverage at a particular site: good coverage on one network does not mean good coverage on the other, so a site where your mobile works well may still be a poor location for a 4G Backup Service, and the reverse.

Coverage information for either network, including coverage maps, is a prediction based on modelling. It is not a guarantee that you will get service at a particular place or time.

In particular:

(a) indoor coverage is often weaker than outdoor coverage at the same location, and is affected by building materials, insulation and window coatings; (b) data services generally need a stronger signal than voice calls; (c) performance varies with your distance from the serving cell, how many people are using that cell, local terrain and obstructions, and the time of day; and (d) coverage changes over time as the network operator adds, upgrades or decommissions cell sites.

If coverage at a specific location matters to you — particularly for a 4G Backup Service, where the whole point is that it works when your fixed connection does not — test it in place before you rely on it, using the equipment and at the position the service will actually occupy.

Signal bars are not a reliable indicator of performance. The bars on your handset are a rough, manufacturer-specific summary of received signal strength at that instant. They are not a measure of speed, capacity or call quality, and:

(a) different handsets, and different software versions on the same handset, calculate and display bars differently — two phones side by side on the same network will often show a different number of bars; (b) bars do not reflect how busy the cell is, so a full-bar display can still be slow at a busy time or in a crowded place; (c) bars do not reflect the quality of the signal, only its strength — interference can degrade a strong signal; and (d) a handset can show bars while data is not usable, and can be usable while showing few bars.

For this reason we will not treat, and ask you not to treat, a change in bars as evidence of a fault or of a change to the network. When you report a mobile problem, what helps us is where you were, when, what you were doing, and what actually happened.

The 5G icon does not mean you are using 5G. A 5G indicator on a handset means the handset believes 5G is available in the area or that it is registered on a network capable of 5G. It does not mean the device is actively carrying your data over 5G at that moment. Whether your device uses 5G, and what speed it gets, depends on your handset and its software, whether the site serving you has 5G equipment and capacity, the frequency bands your handset supports, radio conditions where you are, and your plan's inclusions. Handsets also move between 4G and 5G constantly as conditions change, and some handsets display 5G in circumstances where others display 4G.

We do not promise 5G coverage, 5G speeds or 5G availability at any location. Where a plan includes access to 5G, that means your Service is permitted to use 5G where it is available to a compatible device — nothing more. Any speed information for a mobile plan is set out in your Critical Information Summary.

Many mobile features are functions of the handset as much as the network. Depending on the device you use, its manufacturer, its model variant, its software version and its settings, the following may not work, or may not work fully:

(a) voice over 4G and 5G (VoLTE and VoNR) — where a handset does not support the network's voice-over-data implementation, calling may not work at all, or may not work in locations served only by newer equipment; (b) Wi-Fi Calling — availability depends on the handset, its software, whether the feature is enabled for the Service, and the quality of the Wi-Fi and internet connection carrying the call. Calling Triple Zero over Wi-Fi Calling behaves differently to calling over the mobile network, including how your location is determined — see the Emergency call services section of Section C; (c) SMS and MMS — sending and receiving MMS requires correct APN and messaging settings, and some devices and some messaging applications behave differently on our network; (d) international roaming, tethering, dual-SIM and eSIM behaviour, visual voicemail, and Rich Communication Services (RCS); (e) the frequency bands your handset supports, which determine which parts of the network it can use — a device bought overseas or from a different market often supports fewer bands and will show worse coverage than a locally supplied model; and (f) network selection and software settings, including a manually locked network or band, aeroplane mode, data saver, low-power mode, a VPN, or a carrier settings update your handset has not installed.

If you bring your own device, it is your responsibility to check that it is unlocked, that it supports the features you need on the mobile network we resell, and that it is compatible with that network's technologies. We will tell you what we know about a device, but we do not certify BYO devices and we cannot guarantee that a device will support every feature of your Service. Where a limitation is caused by your device, it is not a fault in our Service — although we will still help you identify it.

We also cannot support devices that rely on network technologies that have been retired by the network operator. Where a network technology is being switched off and it affects your Service or device, we will give you as much notice as we reasonably can under the Changes we may make to this Agreement section of Section A.

International roaming is only available on Services and plans where we say it is, in the countries where the underlying network operator has a roaming arrangement in place. Those arrangements and the countries covered can change, and roaming may be unavailable or withdrawn in a country at short notice.

When you roam, your Service is carried by an overseas network we have no control over. That visited network — not us — determines:

(a) whether your device can register at all, and on which technology (some visited networks are 4G or 5G only, others have retired technologies your device relies on); (b) what speeds and capacity you get; (c) whether particular features work, including VoLTE calling, voicemail, SMS, MMS, tethering and data services; (d) how emergency calls are handled in that country, which will not be Triple Zero; and (e) whether performance is degraded at busy times, since roaming traffic is often given lower priority than the visited network's own customers.

Charges for roaming, and any included allowances, are set out in your Critical Information Summary and our price list. Notifications about roaming usage and spend are provided as required by the applicable ACMA-registered industry code or standard. Because usage information from a visited network can reach us late, roaming usage may appear on a later bill than you expect, and spend controls may not stop usage immediately — check the roaming information for your plan before you travel.

We cannot guarantee that roaming will work in any particular country, on any particular network, or with any particular device. If roaming is essential to you, tell us before you commit and we will tell you what we know.

Every network we resell is shared. Capacity is contended at several points, and that contention is a normal design feature of all consumer and business telecommunications networks, not a fault:

(a) on nbn Fixed Wireless and Satellite, capacity is shared between the premises served by the same cell or beam, and performance can vary significantly with the number of active users, and with weather; (b) on HFC, capacity is shared between premises on the same segment; (c) on FTTB and in apartment buildings, the building's shared infrastructure is used by all connected premises; (d) on all nbn technologies, capacity is shared in the network operator's aggregation and transit network, and in our own network and upstream links; and (e) on mobile, every cell sector is shared by everyone connected to it at that time and place, which is why a stadium, a shopping centre or a busy road can be slow even with a strong signal.

We monitor the capacity we buy and, where our own network or upstream links are the cause of persistent congestion, we will add capacity within a reasonable time. Where congestion is in a Supplier's network, we will report it to the Supplier, pursue it on your behalf and keep you informed, but we cannot fix it ourselves. We will not sell you a plan we know cannot be sustained at your address.

How we manage the network for the benefit of all customers, and the limits on unreasonable or excessive use, are dealt with in the Fair use and network management section of Section C.

Power. An nbn Service depends on mains power at your premises, and on powered equipment in the street. If power fails at your premises or in your area, your nbn Service — and any voice service, alarm or device that depends on it — will not work until power is restored. A mobile Service depends on your handset having charge and on the mobile network in your area having power.

If you depend on a working connection, keep a charged mobile handset and make sure you have an alternative means of calling Triple Zero (000). The Priority Assistance and Vulnerable Customers Policy in Section D sets this out in full, together with what to do about medical alarms and other devices, and how to arrange a Priority Assistance service from Telstra if someone at your premises has a life-threatening medical condition.

Outages and planned work. Networks are also periodically upgraded, maintained and repaired, and this sometimes means your Service is unavailable or degraded. The notice we will give you, and how we handle planned and unplanned outages, is set out in the Planned works, maintenance and outages section of Section C. Where a Supplier gives us little or no notice of work, we will pass on what we receive as soon as we can.

We publish current known outages and network status at lightningip.com.au, and you can call us on 1300 994 884. Please check for a known outage before spending time on troubleshooting.

When something breaks, the Faults and service assurance section of Section C explains how to report a fault, what we will do, how we work with our Suppliers, and what happens if a fault turns out to be in your premises, your Equipment or your own cabling. Where the Telecommunications (Customer Service Guarantee) Standard 2023 applies to a Service, the rights it gives you apply in addition to that section.

Some things affecting your Service are outside our control and outside our Suppliers' control, including:

(a) the public internet beyond our network, and the websites, applications and services you connect to; (b) your own devices, software, in-premises cabling and Wi-Fi environment; (c) equipment or services supplied to you by someone else, including another provider's voice service carried over your broadband; (d) acts or omissions of a third party such as a building owner, body corporate, electricity distributor or civil contractor; and (e) a Force Majeure Event, including fire, flood, storm, extended power failure, industrial action or a government direction.

The limits on our responsibility, and how they operate consistently with the Australian Consumer Law, are set out in the What we are not responsible for section of Section A. We will always tell you honestly what the cause appears to be, including when the answer is that the problem is ours.

If your Service is slower or less reliable than you expected, contact us on 1300 994 884 or through the contact options at lightningip.com.au. To diagnose the problem — and because our Suppliers require this information before they will investigate — we will normally work through the following with you. You are welcome to do it before you call.

For any Service:

(a) check lightningip.com.au for a known outage or planned work in your area; (b) confirm the Service is active and not suspended or restricted, and that your account is in order; (c) restart the equipment — your modem or router, or your handset; (d) test on a second device where you can, to see whether the problem follows the device or stays with the Service; and (e) note the details: the date and time, what you were doing, what happened, and any error message.

For nbn broadband:

(f) test with a computer connected to the router by an Ethernet cable, and compare that with the same test over Wi-Fi — this separates a Wi-Fi problem from a Service problem; (g) run a speed test to an Australian test server, at a quiet time and again during the busy evening period, and record the results; (h) for FTTN, FTTB and FTTC, unplug every other device from every phone socket, and connect the modem to the first socket or the socket the technician used; and (i) tell us whether the problem is constant, only in the evening, or intermittent.

For mobile:

(j) test indoors and outdoors at the same location, and at more than one location; (k) test at different times of day; (l) note the exact addresses or nearest cross streets where the problem occurs, since our Supplier investigates by location; (m) check for a pending software or carrier settings update on your handset, and try the SIM in another compatible handset if you have one; and (n) tell us whether the problem affects calls, SMS, MMS, data, or all of them.

Once we have this, we will investigate, tell you what we find, and raise a fault with our Supplier where the cause is in their network. We will keep you informed while it is open, and we will not close a fault as resolved without telling you. If you are not satisfied with how we are handling it, you can complain under our Complaints Handling Policy in Section D and go to the TIO at any time.

This document explains what we can and cannot promise. It does not, and cannot, reduce the rights the law gives you.

Our Services come with consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) that cannot be excluded, including guarantees that services will be supplied with due care and skill, will be fit for any purpose you told us about or that we said they were fit for, and will be supplied within a reasonable time. Goods we supply, including Equipment, come with guarantees as to acceptable quality and fitness for purpose.

If a Service fails to meet a consumer guarantee, you may be entitled to a remedy. For a minor failure we may choose to fix the problem within a reasonable time. For a major failure — including where the Service is substantially unfit for the purpose you told us about and cannot be made fit within a reasonable time — you may cancel the Service and obtain a refund of amounts paid for the part of the Service not supplied, or keep the Service and seek compensation for the difference in value. You may also be entitled to compensation for reasonably foreseeable loss or damage caused by a failure to meet a guarantee.

If you told us before you signed up that you needed a Service for a particular purpose — for example working from home, video conferencing, or use at a specific address — and the Service cannot deliver that, tell us. We will work with you to fix it, move you to something that does, or release you from the Agreement without an early termination charge, and we will not require you to prove your entitlement in a technical way before we help.

You can also make a complaint under our Complaints Handling Policy in Section D, or contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman at tio.com.au or on 1800 062 058 at any time. Information about consumer guarantees is available from the ACCC at accc.gov.au.