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BIGPOND BROADBAND

PRICE & BILLING

1. Pricing Plans

ADSL plans are located at BigPond Broadband ADSL.

Cable plans are located at BigPond Broadband Cable.

Wireless Broadband plans are located at BigPond Wireless Broadband.

Satellite plans are located at BigPond Broadband Satellite.

2. Points of presence and dial-in telephone prefix

(NB: Contact your telephone company for information about call charges between your home or business and the ISP.)

Not applicable.

3. Termination fees

For BigPond Broadband Cable and ADSL, customers will be liable for a cancellation fee of a maximum of $360, pro rated for the months remaining on their contract term.

For example, a customer who wants to cancel 9 months into an 12 month contract may have to pay a termination fee of $360 X 3/12 (the number of months left to run on the contract divided by 12 months) = $90.

Self installation customers who require a technician service call may be charged $189.

For BigPond Wireless Broadband, customers will be liable for a cancellation fee of a maximum of $370, pro rated for the months remaining on their contract term. For example, a customer who wants to cancel 9 months into a 12 month contract may have to pay a termination fee of $370 x 3/12 (the number of months left to run on the contract divided by 12 months) = $92.50.

For BigPond Broadband Satellite:

  • 1 Way Satellite customers who cancel their contract will be charged a cancellation fee of $495.00 pro-rated for the remainder of their contract.
  • 2 Way Satellite customers who cancel their contract will be charged a cancellation fee of $699.00 pro-rated for the remainder of their contract.
  • Broadband Regional Connect customers who cancel their contract will be charged a cancellation fee of $500 pro-rated for the remainder of their contract.

4. Restrictions on availability of services to customers

BigPond Broadband ADSL is available in limited areas, dependent on customer telephone line quality and exchange. Customers can find out if they are eligible for BigPond Broadband ADSL here.

BigPond Broadband Cable is available in cabled areas of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and the Gold Coast. Customers can find out if they are eligible for BigPond Broadband Cable here.

BigPond Wireless Broadband is available in selected metropolitan and regional areas. For coverage information see http://www.bigpond.com/internet-plans/broadband/wirelessbroadband/coverage.asp.

BigPond Broadband Satellite is available Australia-wide.

5. Billing

BigPond Broadband customers currently have their charges invoiced to them on a monthly basis, or (if applicable) in accordance with their Telstra Single Bill. Their bill invoice is posted to a customer's physical address, and/or is available online via either telstra.com or bigpond.com.

Telstra is changing its systems.

Customers with an account number commencing with 'BP' or with 8 digits or less can pay their bill:
By Direct Debit from their credit card
Over the Internet - credit card
Over the phone - credit card
By BPAY® – customers should contact their participating financial institution to make a payment.
In person at any Telstra shop or Post Office
Mailing their payment - cheque

Customers with a 10 or 13 digit account number can pay their bill:
By Direct Debit from their savings, cheque or credit card account
By BPAY®– customers should contact their participating financial institution to make a payment.
Over the phone - credit card
Over the Internet - credit card
In person at any Telstra shop or Post Office
Mailing their payment - cheque

Customers can find their account number on the top right hand side of their bill.

A payment processing fee applies for credit card payments. Exemptions for eligible pensioner concession card holders, BigPond customers with a bill displaying an account number starting with 'BP' or with 8 or less digits, and others may apply.

Find out more

® Registered to BPAY Pty Ltd ABN 69 079 137 518

6. Ancillary services provided

With BigPond Broadband Cable, ADSL and Wireless Broadband customers can have:

  • Email Forwarding
  • BigPond monthly eNewsletter, Ponderings
  • BigPond WebMail
  • Additional Email Accounts - up to 7 additional email addresses per account. Additional mailbox accounts incur a charge of $1 per additional mailbox per month
  • Additional Services such as Global Roaming, Security, Email Virus Filter, Personal Firewall, Website Hosting, Domain Names, Static IP (for ADSL customers only) and Online Storage.

With BigPond Broadband Satellite, customers can have:

  • WebMail at no additional charge
  • 20MB Personal Web space at no additional charge
  • Email
  • Email Forwarding
  • Email Notifications
  • Domain Name
  • Web Hosting
  • Content Filtering
  • Available Australia Wide.

See ADSL, Cable, Broadband with Home Network Gateway (Wi-Fi modem), Wireless Broadband and Satellite for detailed information about these customer benefits.

PERFORMANCE

7. Total number of minutes per week that customers are unable to access the Internet because modems fully occupied (for each Point of Presence). When did this occur?

(NB: 1 minute per week represents 99.99% availability, 10 minutes per week represents 99.9% availability and 100 minutes per week represents 99% availability)

N/A

HELP AND INSTALLATION

8. Client operating systems for which assistance is available

9. Contact for service faults

By telephone: 133 933
For international customers: +61 02 9242 1238.
Technical Support Email
Service Status page

10. Contact for customer technical help

By telephone: 133 933
For international customers: +61 02 9242 1238.
Technical Support Email form

11. Hours for customer technical help

24 hours a day, 7 days a week

12. Charging for technical help

No charge

13. Assistance with initial activation of service

Depending on the broadband product selected, customers can choose:

  • Professional installation - where the installer visits the premises and installs any software/hardware required onto the customers' computer
  • Self installation - where the customer is provided with the software, hardware and information to install their Internet service. Best for customers with advanced computer expertise.

Irrespective of their installation method, all new broadband customers can call the Technical Support Centre on 133 933 for help with activation.

14. Description of effects of set-up disks on user's systems

The effects of set-up disks on user's systems are:

  • Installs Microsoft Internet Explorer, if necessary
  • An authentication client may be installed
  • Device drivers may be installed

15. Information about setting up customer equipment to maximise performance

Customer equipment troubleshooting content is available to help BigPond Broadband Cable and ADSL customers maximise their broadband performance.

  • Customer equipment troubleshooting content for ADSL
  • Customer equipment troubleshooting content for Cable
  • Customer equipment troubleshooting content for Wireless Broadband

There is currently no information available for BigPond Broadband Satellite.

16. Access for disabled users

There is a Telstra Initiative 'Access for Everyone' that looks at products for disabled users.

COMMUNICATION

17. Contact numbers for administrative, account and billing enquiries

By telephone: 13POND (137663)
Customer Support Email form

18. Period of notice to be given to the customer before termination or suspension of the service

30 days notice unless the terms and conditions have been breached -

Terms and conditions are available online at:

19. Period of notice to be given by the customer if the customer wishes to terminate the service

For BigPond Broadband:

  • If a customer is entitled to a Cooling-Off Period, they may terminate the service at any time within the Cooling-Off Period by giving Telstra notice in accordance with the relevant legislation.
  • Otherwise customers may terminate the service at any time by giving notice to Telstra. If the customer decides to terminate the BigPond Broadband Service after the expiration of the Cooling Off Period, if applicable, and before the end of the contract term, the customer must pay to Telstra the cancellation fee as set out in the Rate Card pro-rated for the remainder of the contract term.

For Terms and Conditions information see:

20. Customer action required to terminate the service

To close their BigPond Broadband account, customers must call the Billing and Sales Customer Service Centre on 13POND (137663) and follow the prompts.

21. Reminder notices for pre-paid contracts

Pre-paid access is not available for BigPond Broadband.

22. Period of notice for changes in prices, terms and conditions

Non detrimental changes can be made at any time. If Telstra reasonably considers that the change will cause detriment then Telstra will notify customers of the change at least 30 days in advance and provide customers with the option to terminate the service.

For Terms and Conditions information see:

23. Method of communication about changes in prices, terms and conditions

Any changes about price or terms and conditions are communicated to customers via the BigPond.com website.

24. Notice of approaching data limits

BigPond Broadband Cable, ADSL and Wireless Broadband customers receive notification emails when they approach their monthly usage allowance limit.

For customers on allowance based plans:

  • An email is sent when 50% of the monthly plan allowance has been used
  • An email is sent when 75% of the monthly plan allowance has been used
  • An email is sent when 100% of the monthly plan allowance has been used
  • An email is sent when 125% of the monthly plan allowance has been used
  • An email is sent when 175% of the monthly plan allowance has been used
  • An email is sent when 200% of the monthly plan allowance has been used

For customers on Unlimited* plans:

  • An email is sent notifying them when they are at 80% of their usage allowance, advising that speeds will be slowed to 64kbps once they reach that usage allowance.
  • An email is sent notifying them when they have reached 100% of their usage allowance, and that their speed has been slowed to 64kbps.

BigPond Broadband Satellite does not send notification emails.

25. Operating manuals, guidebooks or other information

All information customers require is supplied when they activate their account with BigPond.

This information is also available on the BigPond Broadband Website.

Support information such as frequently asked questions or troubleshooting content is available online at BigPond Help Centre.

26. Internal service standards for answering and responding to customer enquiries

Telstra strives to achieve the following service standards when answering and responding to customer enquiries:

  • Answering and responding to customer enquiries via phone:
    80% of calls answered in 20 seconds (120 seconds for Technical Support Enquiries)
  • Answering and responding to customer enquiries via email and our Contact Us webform: 24 hour response time, from the time we receive a customer’s enquiry.

27. Notice period for planned outages

Customers are given as much notice as reasonably possible of any planned outages.

28. Information about planned outages

Customers are advised of any planned outages to BigPond services through the BigPond Service Status page.

29. Information about unplanned outages

Customers are advised of any unplanned outages to BigPond services at: Service Updates.

30. Internal policies and processes about complaint handling and dispute resolution

For information on Telstra's policy on complaint handling and dispute resolution visit Telstra's Customer Service Charter.

31. Privacy policy

Telstra's Privacy Statement (policy) is presented to customers whenever they are asked to provide details about themselves (e.g within the application sign up pages, contact us pages).

There is a link to the Telstra Privacy Statement at the bottom of every page of the Telstra BigPond Websites. For detail, see the Telstra Privacy Statement.

SECURITY OF SERVICE

32. Information about data backed up by ISP

The following data is backed up:

  • ISP Mail*
  • Central Membership Billing Data
  • Personal Websites

* Backed up for Telstra's server failure only

33. Information about security services

Security is an issue of high priority with BigPond. We provide customers with an easy to use 'Misuse' form to let us know if they've experienced spam, unsolicited bulk emails, port scans or attempted intrusions into their PC, originating from a BigPond email address or IP. For detail, see the Report Misuse of Service form.

Extensive security information is available throughout the BigPond Web site: Security Information page.

Additional information is available through the terms and conditions for all BigPond Broadband products.

And the Acceptable Use Policy:

34. Information about control of use of Internet service by other parties

Information about control of use of Internet service by other parties is available through the terms and conditions for all BigPond Broadband products.

And the Acceptable Use Policy:

OTHER INFORMATION

35. Affiliations with industry organisations

Telstra is member of the following industry organisations:

  • ATUG - Australian Telecommunication Users Group
  • IIA - Internet Industry Association
  • AIIA - Australian Information Industries Association

36. Compliance with industry self-regulatory arrangements and standards

Telstra complies with a number of industry self regulatory arrangements and standards including :

  • ACIF C515:2002 Preselection - Single Basket/Multi Service Deliverer
  • ACIF C518:2000 Call Charging & Billing Accuracy
  • ACIF C523:2001 Protection of Personal Information of Customers of Telecommunications Providers
  • ACIF C531:2002 Commercial Churn
  • ACIF C536:2002 Emergency Call Service Requirements
  • ACIF C537:2002 Provision of Assistance to National Security, Enforcement & Govt Agencies
  • ACIF C541:2001 Credit Management
  • ACIF C542:2001 Billing
  • ACIF C547:2001 Complaint Handling
  • ACIF C555:2002 Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) Data Provider, Data User & IPND Manager
  • ACIF C559: 2001 Unconditioned Local Loop Service Network Deployment Rules
  • Internet Industry Association Content Code of Practice