We recognise now more than ever, Southern Phone’s essential role in keeping people connected, especially during these unfamiliar times.
Our priority is the wellbeing of our people as they perform essential work keeping colleagues, friends and families connected via their internet and mobile services all over Australia.
Southern Phone encourages our customers to follow the guidance of the Australian Health Department.
We are taking a considered approach to supporting our people, customers and the communities we serve.
Supporting our customers and the community
NBN and ADSL Customers
To help our customers work from home and stay in touch with their loved ones, we will be providing 24/7 unlimited data to all nbn™(excludes nbn™Satellite) and ADSL Broadband customers from the 23rd of March until the 30th of September 2020. You don’t need to do anything, the unlimited data will be provided automatically to you, at no extra charge. Your data won’t be counted during this period, and you won’t see the extra data on your bill. Please keep in mind that our Fair Use Policy applies.
NBN Satellite Customers
NBN Co have recently made changes to both their standard nbn™ Skymuster™ and nbn™ Skymuster Plus™ services enabling us to better support our customer during this time. From the 31st of March for a limited period of up to three months, NBN Co will increase the download limits that we can offer for standard nbn™ Sky Muster™ services, meaning we are able to provide our customers with an additional 45GB of peak data to use each month.
From the 1st of April, on an ongoing basis nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plans will include an expansion of unmetered content, meaning all traffic other than video streaming and traffic via a VPN, will be unmetered. Unmetered activities currently include web browsing, email and operating system updates. However, as part of these enhancements, common social media applications such as Skype and Facetime will now be unmetered making it easier to stay in contact with family, friends and workmates without exceeding your data allowance. Please keep in mind that standard Sky Muster™ Plus terms and conditions apply.*
Financial hardship and small business
We also acknowledge that difficult times, like those we are experiencing now, can lead to financial troubles, but there is support available through Southern Phone’s Financial Hardship program for all customers.
To support small businesses we will commit to pay our suppliers within 14 days.
Workplace arrangements
We have plans in place to protect the health and safety of our employees, and we will continue to find ways to support them and their families, both at home and in the workplace.
We are taking the necessary steps to look after the wellbeing of our people, including requesting those who can, work from home. And for those essential to our operations and customer engagement, we are taking the necessary precautionary measures to support them.
We have also restricted business-related travel.
Our role in keeping you connected
We take our role as a critical service provider seriously. As more people shift to work from home arrangements and are isolated from their friends and family, we recognise that reliable internet, mobile and home phone services are vital for staying connected.
Southern Phone has strong business continuity plans activated, for both our Bendigo and Moruya offices, to ensure we can continue to support our customers and provide them with the high level of service they expect from their telco.
As we ramp up our measures to ensure the wellbeing of our people, we will be doing this in a way that ensures we are able to provide critical communication services to our customers and community.
For more resources and specific service information for both new and existing services, please visit our help centre.
*Sky Muster™ Plus - Terms and Conditions
Certain unmetered activities may be shaped to wholesale speeds of 256Kbps between the hours of 4pm and 11pm daily, such as peer to peer traffic, uploads and downloads to cloud storage platforms, PC and smartphone operating system updates, software and gaming updates, and internet activity related to applications which nbn™ cannot identify.