Sky5G Australia Network Outage Policy

Networks fail sometimes — a storm takes out a tower, a fibre link is cut, a power supply dies, or an upgrade goes wrong. When that happens, what you need from us is honest information, quickly, and a fair remedy if the outage was long. This policy explains what we count as an outage, how and when we will tell you about one, what we do about planned maintenance, how to reach emergency services when our network is down, and what you are entitled to if an outage goes on too long. It applies to all Sky5G Australia services: prepaid 5G mobile broadband (SIM and eSIM) and fixed wireless broadband.

This policy is written to meet the ACMA's Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024, which took effect on 31 December 2024 after the review of the November 2023 Optus outage, together with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code and the consumer guarantees in the Australian Consumer Law. Where the law gives you more than this policy does, the law applies.

What counts as an outage

We classify incidents so that we can respond to each in the right way:

• Major outage (unplanned). A fault on our network that stops customers using their service and affects a whole region, town, island or exchange area, or a large share of our customers, or any core system that all customers depend on (for example the mobile core, authentication or our internet gateway). We also treat any outage that could affect emergency calls as major, however few customers it touches.
• Planned maintenance. Work we schedule in advance — upgrades, repairs, capacity additions — that we expect to interrupt service, even briefly.
• Localised fault. A fault at a single tower, site or backhaul link that affects the customers served by it (typically one town, village or suburb) while the rest of the network is working.
• Single-service fault. A problem affecting one customer's service only — a SIM, eSIM profile, modem, antenna or PPPoE account — while other customers nearby are connected normally. These are handled as support cases rather than announced outages.
• Degraded service. Not a full loss of service, but speeds or reliability well below what you would normally get because of a network problem on our side. We treat a degradation that makes the service unusable for its ordinary purpose as an outage of the relevant class.

What is not an outage under this policy

• faults in equipment you own or that is on your side of the service boundary (your phone, router, modem settings, cabling or Wi-Fi), although we will still help you troubleshoot;
• loss of mains power at your premises or at your device — fixed wireless equipment and mobile devices need power to work;
• events on networks we do not control, such as an international submarine cable cut, an upstream carrier's or satellite provider's outage, or a problem with the website or app you are trying to reach, where our own network is operating normally (we will still tell you about these when we know they are affecting you, and we pursue the upstream provider on your behalf);
• a service that is suspended, expired, or outside our coverage area;
• force majeure — cyclones, floods, earthquakes, fire, war, civil unrest, acts of government and similar events beyond our reasonable control. We will communicate and restore service as fast as we can during such events, but the remedies under Remedies do not apply automatically to them.

How we tell you

Where to look first: the status page at /status on our website. It shows the current state of the Sky5G network, My Account and recharge systems, every open incident with its updates, and recent resolved incidents. It is hosted separately from our core network so that it stays up when the network does not.

Depending on the kind of outage we also use:

• SMS, email and app notifications to the customers we believe are affected (SMS may not arrive until your mobile service is restored; email and app notifications reach you on Wi-Fi or another network);
• our social media accounts;
• our support line and chat, which carry the same information as the status page so you get a consistent answer whichever way you ask;
• local radio, community notice boards and resellers for prolonged outages in regional and remote communities, where that is the most reliable way to reach people.

Timing commitments

"Confirm" means the point at which our network operations team has verified the fault is real and on our network, which is usually within minutes of our monitoring alerting or the first customer reports.

What every notice contains (as much of it as we know at the time — we will not delay a first notice to wait for a cause):

• the areas, towns or sites affected, and the scale (how many customers or sites, as far as we know);
• which services are affected — mobile data, fixed wireless, voice over data apps, My Account, recharge;
• the cause or likely cause, unless telling you would create a security risk;
• what we are doing about it and the estimated time to restore, and when the next update will come;
• how to reach emergency services while the outage lasts (Triple Zero (000));
• any workaround — for example, Wi-Fi where available, a different tower that is still working, or temporary roaming arrangements;
• how to get urgent help from us in real time (see Getting help during an outage).

We write notices in plain language and in an accessible format. We will not describe an outage as "intermittent" or "degraded" when it is in fact a loss of service.

Priority customers

Tell us if anyone at your premises depends on a connection for a life-threatening medical condition, or if your service supports a health facility, school, evacuation centre or other essential community service. We flag these on your account, contact you directly during major and localised outages, and prioritise restoration where it is technically possible to do so.

Emergency calls during an outage

If someone's life or property is in danger, call Triple Zero (000). This is the most important thing to know about any outage:

• A mobile outage does not necessarily stop 000. Australian mobile networks are required to carry emergency calls from any handset, so if our network is unavailable but another carrier has coverage where you are, your phone will normally connect to that network for the emergency call only. You do not need to change any settings — just dial 000 (or 112, which works the same way on mobiles). You will not be able to make ordinary calls this way.
• Wi-Fi calling. If your handset and service support Wi-Fi calling and you have a working internet connection, your phone may place the call over Wi-Fi. Do not rely on this: if a 000 call does not connect, try again, use another phone (a landline, a neighbour's phone or a phone on a different network), or go to the nearest police, fire or ambulance station.
• If you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, use 106, the text-based emergency relay service (TTY), or the National Relay Service's emergency options.
• Fixed wireless customers do not have a voice service from us; keep a charged mobile phone available for emergencies, and tell us if anyone at the premises depends on a connection for medical reasons so we can note it on your account.

During a major outage we notify the Emergency Call Person (Telstra, which answers 000) and the emergency service organisations, as the ACMA standard requires, so they know our customers may have trouble reaching them. Every outage notice we send includes a reminder of how to reach emergency services.

Planned maintenance

Sometimes we have to take part of the network down on purpose — to add capacity, replace hardware, patch software or move a link. When we do:

• Notice. We announce planned maintenance on the status page at least 5 days in advance, and send an SMS, email or app notice to customers served by the affected site when the expected interruption is longer than 30 minutes.
• Windows. We schedule maintenance for the quietest time of day, normally between 11pm and 6am local time, and avoid public holidays and known community events where we can.
• Content of the notice. The sites and areas affected, the planned start and end time, what will and will not work during the window, and how to contact us.
• Overruns. If work overruns its window by more than 30 minutes we update the status page and treat the overrun as an unplanned outage for the purposes of Remedies.
• Emergency maintenance. Occasionally we must act quickly to fix a security vulnerability or prevent a bigger failure. We give as much notice as the situation allows, explain afterwards why the usual notice period was not possible, and never schedule emergency work in daytime hours unless the alternative is worse for customers.

Planned maintenance that happens within its announced window, with the required notice, does not count toward the remedy threshold under Remedies.

Getting help during an outage

You can always reach a person: during a major outage we staff our support line and chat so that someone can answer urgent requests immediately, and we do not route outage calls to an automated assistant. Email support@sky5g.global or use the support contact details shown on your account and on our website. Authorized Sky5G resellers can also relay urgent requests to us.

• Interpreters. If English is not your first language, call the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 and ask them to call us.
• Hearing or speech impairment. Contact us through the National Relay Service (relayservice.gov.au).

Remedies: credits and extensions for prolonged outages

Our services are mostly prepaid, so the fairest remedy for lost time is usually to give the time back.

• Threshold. If an unplanned outage on our network (a major outage or localised fault) leaves your service unusable at your service location for more than 24 continuous hours, you are entitled to a remedy.
• Prepaid mobile and prepaid fixed wireless. We extend the expiry of your current voucher or plan by one full day for every 24 hours (or part of a day beyond the first 24 hours) that the outage lasted. If you would rather have the equivalent value as account credit toward your next recharge, ask and we will do that instead.
• Monthly or billed fixed wireless. We credit your account with the daily rate of your plan for each day, or part day, of outage beyond the first 24 hours, in AUD.
• Longer outages. If an outage at your location lasts more than 7 days, you may cancel the affected service without penalty and we refund the unused portion of your prepaid period, or you may ask us about temporary alternatives such as a loan mobile device or a different plan.
• Automatic for major outages. For a major outage we identify the affected customers from our network records and apply the extension or credit automatically, normally within 10 business days of restoration, and tell you by SMS or email. You do not need to ask.
• Ask us for anything else. For a localised fault, or if you believe you were affected and did not receive a remedy, contact us within 60 days of the outage with your service number or voucher code. We check our records and respond within 5 business days. If we cannot confirm the outage from our records we will tell you why and what evidence would help.

These remedies are in addition to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded, including that they will be supplied with due care and skill and be fit for purpose; for a major failure you may be entitled to cancel and obtain a refund of the unused part of your prepaid service, and to compensation for other reasonably foreseeable loss. Where we supply a service covered by the Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) Standard (standard fixed telephone services), the CSG's fault repair timeframes and compensation apply as well; our mobile and fixed wireless broadband services are generally not CSG services.

These remedies do not apply to single-service faults (which are handled under your service terms and the consumer guarantees), to events listed as "not an outage" under What counts as an outage, or to planned maintenance carried out within its announced window.

How to report an outage

If your service stops working and the status page does not already show an incident in your area:

1. Check your own equipment first — power, cables, restart your modem or phone, and check whether other Sky5G users near you are affected.
2. Report it to us by email at support@sky5g.global, by phone or chat using the support contact details on your account and our website, through the app, or through your authorized Sky5G reseller. Tell us your service number or voucher code, your location (town or address), what has stopped working and when it started.
3. We will give you a reference number, tell you whether we already know about a fault in your area, and keep you updated through the status page or directly.

Fault reports from customers are often the first sign of a localised fault, and we are grateful for them.

Complaints and escalation

If you are unhappy with how we handled an outage, our communication, or a remedy decision, use our Complaints Handling Process. We acknowledge complaints within 2 business days and aim to resolve them within 15. If an outage has left you unable to pay for your service, or has caused you financial loss, our Financial Hardship Policy explains the help available.

If you are not satisfied with our response, or we have not resolved your complaint within 15 business days, you can take it to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), a free and independent dispute resolution service: 1800 062 058, tio.com.au.

Our legal obligations

• ACMA Telecommunications (Customer Communications for Outages) Industry Standard 2024. This standard applies to carriers and carriage service providers and defines a major outage as an unplanned outage expected to last 60 minutes or longer that stops customers using their service and affects 100,000 or more services, or all services on a network in a State or Territory. For a major outage, a provider must: tell affected customers (by app notification, email or SMS) and the public (through its website, its call centre and social or other media) as soon as practicable; include what it knows about the scale, the cause or likely cause, the areas and the types of service affected, when the next update is due and the estimated time to fix; give an update whenever something material changes and otherwise at least every 6 hours for the first 24 hours and at least once every 24 hours after that until it is fixed; announce the restoration as soon as practicable; offer a real-time or near-real-time way (such as a phone line or live chat, not an automated AI service) to get urgent help; and keep written procedures for all of this. Because of our size, an outage on our network alone will rarely meet the 100,000-service threshold, so this policy applies the standard's requirements to every outage we call major under What counts as an outage — we do not wait for the legal threshold. The ACMA later extended the standard to cover significant local outages (smaller outages that cut off a whole community for an extended time); we treat those the same way.
• Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code — our obligations to give you clear, accurate information about our services and to handle complaints fairly.
• Customer Service Guarantee Standard — fault repair timeframes and compensation for standard fixed telephone services, where we supply one.
• Australian Consumer Law — the consumer guarantees described under Remedies above.
• Emergency call service rules (Telecommunications (Emergency Call Service) Determination) — the arrangements that allow 000 calls to be carried on any available mobile network, and our duty to notify the Emergency Call Person about outages that could affect emergency calls.

If you believe we have not met these obligations you can complain to us, and then to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. The ACMA (acma.gov.au) enforces the standard and the TCP Code.

Definitions

• Outage — a loss of service, or a degradation that makes the service unusable for its ordinary purpose, caused by a fault on the Sky5G Australia network (see What counts as an outage).
• Major outage — see What counts as an outage; the term is also used in the Australian ACMA standard with the specific meaning set out under Our legal obligations.
• Localised fault — an outage confined to a single tower, site or backhaul link.
• Planned maintenance — scheduled work announced in advance under Planned maintenance.
• Service location — for fixed wireless, the installation address; for mobile services, the place where you normally use the service, as shown by the sites your device connects to.
• Status page — the page at /status on our website.
• Material change — a change to the areas or services affected, the cause, the workaround or the estimated time to restore.
• Business day — a weekday that is not a public holiday in Australia.
• Force majeure — events beyond our reasonable control, as described under What counts as an outage.

Reviewing this policy

We review this policy at least annually, after every major outage, and whenever the law or industry standards change. The current version is always available in the Legal & policies section of our website and on request from our support team.

Draft v1 — requires review by counsel qualified in Australia before publication.