NBN Co clamps down on interim satellite service usage

NBN Co has begun clamping down on high-download users of the interim satellite service, issuing a 50GB limit on monthly downloads.

In March last year, the government invested another AU$18.4 million to improve the capacity on the interim satellite services on offer to regional and remote areas. The service had been at capacity for several months, with 9,000 more customers waiting to join ahead of the launch of two NBN Co-owned satellites at the end of 2015.

Under the agreement, capacity was to be increased by one third, from 30Kbps to 40Kbps, and the new arrangements will see their download speeds in peak periods increase from below 500Kbps to above 1.5Mbps.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said at the time that as part of the agreement, NBN Co would introduce a fair use policy to crack down on users taking up "abnormally high amounts of capacity".

Since then, the number of subscribers has continued to decline, down from 43,000 at the end of June to 40,000 as of the end of January this year.

NBN Co now appears to be enforcing its fair use policy. According to an email sent to retail service providers and passed on to customers, seen by ZDNet, the company has told retail service providers to withdraw any large data allowances.

"Under a directive from NBN Co, RSPs are no longer able to offer and provide plans that allow the customer to approach 50GB of peak-hour usage during any four-week period," SkyMesh told its customers over the weekend.

Additionally, NBN Co is enforcing a 9.7GB download average over a four-week period. The company told retailers that this new limit is only expected to impact around 5 percent of users on the interim satellite service.

It comes as NBN Co is facing a three-month delay for its satellite launch due to Arianspace's inability to find an appropriate launch partner for the first satellite.

The company also announced on Monday that it had completed the construction of its 10 satellite stations around Australia.

NSW is home to three ground stations, while there are four in Western Australia, and one each in Queensland, Tasmania, and South Australia.

Each is made up of two 13.5-metre satellite dishes.

Stations at Kalgoorlie and Wolumla have an additional two satellites each for backup and tracking.

Satellite architect Julia Dickinson said that advancing internet services in rural areas would help put Australians on a level playing field.

"With no access to any other form of commercial broadband service, some rural and regional Australians are still using dial-up internet," she said.

With AAP