How we connect you. Behind the scenes
A lot of people think that connecting to the internet will just require a phone call to some anonymous magician who will flip a switch and boom! You’re connected and surfing the web. Just like that.
For this article, I talked to some of those ‘anonymous magicians’ to find out exactly what is involved with flipping that switch.
Want to know more about the real process of connecting to rural nbn™ internet?
Read on.
It’s a bit like Dorothy pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz.
What stands behind there is… well… not even remotely what we imagined it would be.
When it comes to connecting you to rural nbn™ internet services, there is no magician with a magic switchboard behind the curtain.
Instead, there is a multi-organisational process which may or may not be linear.
Oh, and the process is slightly different depending on whether you’re connecting to nbn™ satellite internet or nbn™ fixed wireless internet.
The real internet connection process by service type
Like I said, there are slightly different connection processes for each type of nbn™ internet service.
The most significant difference in process is who makes the appointment for a technician to install equipment for your new connection.
SkyMesh can organise your appointment date and timeframe if you’re having an nbn™ fixed wireless internet installation. But NBN Co prefer to set their own appointments for a satellite internet service. They use a variety of external companies for this exercise.
Satellite services
When we talk about nbn™ satellite internet services, we’re talking about both the Sky Muster™ and Sky Muster™ Plus service types.
The process of connecting a satellite service starts with checking your address to make sure you’re able to connect to nbn™ satellite internet where you live.
We’ve got handy buttons all over our website to help you with that.
If you can get nbn™ satellite internet at your place, you need to decide whether you want a standard Sky Muster™ plan or a souped-up Sky Muster™ Plus plan.
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Once you’ve made the big decision, you can either submit your order via the website or by calling our all-Aussie Customer Engagement Team on 1300 759 637.
All web-based orders begin with checking your address before you progress to choosing your plan.
Once we’ve processed your order, we’ll send you a welcome email and submit your order to NBN Co.
This is where the process differs a little to the nbn™ fixed wireless connection.
When it comes to satellite internet connections, NBN Co prefer to make the technician appointments. But if you’re connecting to fixed wireless internet, we can make the appointment for you, as you’ll see if you keep reading.
The NBN Co appointed technician will contact you to let you know what date they have been able to schedule for you. If this date doesn’t suit, you will need to contact them to set a new date and timeframe.
Once the technician has completed your installation, they will update the job number that NBN Co provided them for your service.
NBN Co then update the order we placed to confirm the installation. This process can take up to 24-hours to complete. That’s when we can enable your connection.
And just like that, web surf’s up 😉 !
Fixed wireless services
Firstly, you need to check your address and make sure that the nbn™ are currently supplying fixed wireless internet where you live.
Just like you would if you were ordering a satellite internet service.
Once you’ve confirmed that nbn™ fixed wireless internet is available at your address, you need to choose your plan and submit an order through SkyMesh.
You can do that on our website or by calling our all-Aussie Customer Engagement Team on 1300 759 637.
All web-based orders begin with checking your address before you progress to choosing your plan.
Once we’ve processed your order, you’ll receive a welcome email from us.
After that, we’ll submit your order to NBN Co, book in a technician to install the necessary equipment, and send you another email with all the details.
If the date and timeframe don’t suit you, don’t worry. All you need to do is reach out to us as soon as humanly possible so we can rearrange it for you.
Once the technician has been out and installed the equipment for your new nbn™ fixed wireless internet connection, NBN Co let SkyMesh know we’ve got the green light to enable your connection.
That normally happens in a 24 – 48-hour period.
Then bada bing, bada boom, you have the whole world wide web in the palm of your hands!
Appointment timeframes
Satellite internet
How soon an NBN Co approved technician comes to complete your satellite internet installation depends on where you sit in the service level agreement they have spelt out on their website.
We’ve broken down what they say for you below.
The below timeframes are typically the maximum and we generally see our customers connected much sooner.
The outlined timeframes are what NBN Co aim to achieve from the day SkyMesh submits your satellite internet order to them:
- Standard installations
20-business days - Standard installations in isolated regions of mainland Australia, and in Tasmania
35-business days - Standard installations in limited access areas, including those only accessible by air or water
90-business days
These timeframes are all dependent on certain conditions and can definitely take a little longer if there are public holidays in the mix.
[IMAGE SOURCE: www.nbnco.com.au]
Fixed wireless internet
When it comes to fixed wireless internet installations, appointment timeframes are dependent on the time slots that NBN Co make available to internet service providers (e.g., SkyMesh) at any point in time.
Generally speaking, appointments will happen within 2 – 4-weeks of SkyMesh placing your order with NBN Co. Exceptions to that tend to happen around public holidays and adverse weather, for example.
The appointment dates and timeframes we can offer you for fixed wireless installations are also available to customers of all other internet service providers, so they fill up quickly.
We recommend making an on-the-spot commitment to the date and timeframe we discuss with you because other spots may not be readily available later. We don’t want there to be any unnecessary delays to your installation.
You are likely to get text messages from the technician which will confirm your appointment time. They’ll ask you to reply to their message so that the appointment time is locked in tight. They’ll also give you details to contact them if you need to discuss your appointment in any way.
[IMAGE SOURCE: www.nbnco.com.au]
Are there ever any hiccups in these processes?
There are hiccups in any process from time-to-time. Connecting you to the internet is no different.
So, what hiccups could happen and how are they handled?
Sometimes, NBN Co need to reschedule the installation of equipment at your place. The most common reasons for that include:
- Technician is sick
- Technician broke down
- Technician availability
- Adverse weather
- Line-of-sight issues
- Workplace Health and Safety issues – (asbestos, live wires etc)
- Non-standard installations
The technician will let you know why they can’t go ahead with the installation, provide next steps, and will update SkyMesh.
“If your address isn’t listed in NBN Co’s system, we can get it added but that might take an extra business day or so, slightly delaying your installation.
But don’t worry, we’ll get it sorted out for you!”Isaiah Prilja, SkyMesh Customer Engagement Team Member
Technician availability
Satellite internet
NBN Co technicians will contact you directly to schedule your installation appointment.
When it comes to nbn™ satellite services, internet service providers (like SkyMesh) can’t confirm your appointment before the NBN Co appointed technicians reach out to you.
This means we’ve got a limited amount of information to give you, especially if NBN Co have had no updates from their chosen installation company.
If you do ever need additional information though, you are more than welcome to give us a call on 1300 759 637.
We will give you all the information that NBN Co make available to us. And, if we don’t have the information at hand, we will contact NBN Co on your behalf to try and find out what you need to know.
Fixed wireless internet
NBN Co make a certain number of fixed wireless installation appointment times available to internet service providers (like SkyMesh) at any one time.
We can only see those appointment times when we go to process an application.
The appointment times available to SkyMesh customers are also available to customers of every other internet service provider. As you can imagine, that means they fill quickly. It’s important to commit to the appointment details we discuss with you to avoid any delays in your installation.
If there are no appointments available when we go to book you in, we’ll have to wait for NBN Co to release some more time slots.
In our experience, NBN Co like to have 2 – 3 weeks’ worth of appointments available at any time.
In the rare occasions they run out of appointments before they can release more, it could take a week or so for them to make more available. This is directly related to the demand on their technicians, but they work hard to keep appointment times available.
SkyMesh will definitely contact you though and let you know what’s happening at every step.
Line-of-sight issues
For fixed wireless installations, the technician will be checking the line-of-sight between your property and the nbn™ fixed wireless tower. If that turns out to be inadequate, you’ll be given the option to order an nbn™ satellite internet connection (Sky Muster™ or Sky Muster™ Plus).
But you should know that some of the obstructions causing line-of-sight issues for fixed wireless connections could also cause trouble for satellite internet connections.
If there are trees blocking the signal, you may need to have them removed, for example. The technician will let you know what the issues are you need to address before an installation can go ahead.
Non-standard installations
If the NBN Co technician can’t get a strong signal with a standard set-up on your property, they may suggest coming back another time with additional equipment for a non-standard installation.
It may mean they need to set-up other structures on your property to reach the signal height.
At this point, the technician will prepare a quote and send it to NBN Co to approve.
It can take a couple of months for NBN Co to approve the quote, but once it’s done, they will prompt us to confirm that you still want the installation.
If you do still want to go ahead, we’ll add a new appointment request to your order and NBN Co’s technicians will be in touch with you to arrange the date.
NOTE:
NBN Co technicians and SkyMesh are not affiliated with each other in any way.We don’t have any contact with the contractors that NBN Co send to complete your installation.
The technicians update NBN Co who in turn update us at SkyMesh.
Depending on the complexity of your case, NBN Co might not update us for some time. That timeframe can be anywhere from 2-days to several weeks.
We can request updates from NBN Co for you at any time though so reach out to us on
1300 759 637.
That’s the real internet connection process
Removing the magic and mystery of connecting to the internet can be a bit like discovering Santa isn’t real.
We all want it to be a flick of the switch, but truthfully, it’s a lot more complicated.
Everybody – in the multi-organisation process of connecting regional, rural and remote Australians to the internet – is committed to making it happen as fast as they can for you.
If you’re ready to get connected, why not check your address then give us a call on 1300 759 637.
Ready to connect to rural nbn™ internet?
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