Lightning IP Connect

Weekly Roundup: Key Updates from nbn Co and other news

gavin@lightningip.com.au (Gavin James) — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:17:22 GMT

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we bring you the latest developments in the telecommunications industry in Australia. As an internet service provider today, we acknowledge the growing importance of robust infrastructure and reliable services for our customers across the nation. Here’s what’s been happening this week.

nbn Fixed Wireless Upgrade Program Completed for 800k Homes and Businesses

The $750 million nbn Fixed Wireless and Satellite Upgrade Program has officially concluded, enhancing broadband service for approximately 800,000 homes and businesses across regional and remote Australia. The upgrades involve substantial improvements to more than 2,300 towers, resulting in faster download speeds even during peak usage times. This initiative not only enhances everyday online activities such as streaming and browsing but also facilitates access to remote healthcare, remote working opportunities, and education.

An impressive benefit of this upgrade is the introduction of two new high-speed tier plans, which offer peak wholesale download speeds of up to five times faster than previously available options. More than 120,000 homes previously reliant on the nbn Sky Muster satellite service can now switch to the improved nbn Fixed Wireless service, promising better connectivity and experiences for customers in these regions. Read more .

NBN Co Delivers Solid Half-Year Results in Line with FY25 Guidance

NBN Co has reported total revenue of $2.87 billion for the first half of FY25, an increase of 4 percent from the corresponding period in FY24. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 7 percent, reaching $2.12 billion. The company continues to perform well against its FY25 guidance, which aims for revenue between $5.7 billion and $5.9 billion.

The number of premises connected to the nbn network has surged to 8.62 million, with significant upgrades to 594,000 premises to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) as part of the Fibre Connect Program. This ongoing investment in digital infrastructure not only improves service quality but also supports the government's initiatives aimed at enhancing digital capabilities across Australia. Read more .

Telstra's CustData Portal Inaccessible for a Week

Telstra's CustData portal, crucial for enterprise and wholesale customers to manage their network settings and usage, experienced a significant outage, leaving it inaccessible for over a week. This downtime resulted from unplanned maintenance efforts, causing disruption as customers relied on alternate methods to lodge changes.

Telstra has reassured customers of ongoing support during the period, actively guiding them through alternative means for service adjustments until full access is restored. This incident highlights the critical need for effective communication and rapid response in managing service portals vital to customer functioning. Read more .

NBN Co's Fibre Upgrades Reach Record High

Recent reports indicate that NBN Co upgraded over 217,000 premises to full fibre in the last half of 2024, surpassing previous annual targets and emphasizing a shift towards fiber connectivity. This progress underscores a growing awareness among customers about available services, alongside initiatives aimed at transitioning homes from outdated copper lines to high-speed fibre connections.

The continued push for fibre upgrades is reflected in competitive offerings from retailers, with many customers opting for higher speed tiers even when not required. This trend is indicative of an increasing appetite for faster internet services, aligning with modern digital consumption needs in a connected economy. Read more .

TPG Telecom Recovers After Data Centre Outage

After a severe outage linked to both mains and backup power failure at one of its data centres in Sydney, TPG Telecom has restored services to most of its customers. The incident, exacerbated by a recent storm that caused localized flooding, affected users nationwide, especially in New South Wales and the ACT, highlighting the vulnerabilities of service providers to external environmental factors.

In response, TPG communicated with its customers through various channels, emphasizing proactive measures taken to ensure service restoration while addressing network stability concerns. This episode illustrates the importance of resilience and contingency planning in maintaining service continuity. Read more .

Stay tuned for more updates next week, as we continue to monitor the evolving landscape of telecommunications in Australia!

We are ready for new nbn Co pricing strategy

gavin@lightningip.com.au (Gavin James) — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:12:59 GMT

Cost certainty for nbn Co's future a welcome change

You may have seen a flood of articles in the media this week about the upcoming price changes to nbn plans. The ACCC and nbn Co have been in discussions for some time regarding a much larger change in the way nbn Co operates, not just the pricing of nbn Co's network components.

What will the new pricing plans be?

Let us jump straight in and have alook at the new pricing plans that Lightning IP will be offering on services over the national broadband network.

Home & Small Office Plans

Our most popular range of plans designed for homes and small offices have primarily had a price decrease, bringing the price down on the ever increasing popular choice of the fast and above plans.

Home & Small Office Pro Plans

Our Pro plans provide a massive boost in upload speeds from their counterparts. While this upload boost does come at a price, it is exciting to say that across the board these plans have seen a reduction in price.

Fixed Wireless Plans

Over the next quarter, we will expect nbn Co to realease two new speed tiers for Fixed Wireless plus, this includes the Fast and Super Fast tiers, designed to match the speeds of their terrestrial counterparts. This is great news for those in outlying or sparsely populated areas looking for more speed than what has been previously available.

B usiness Priority Plans

Often overlooked, our business priority plans provide an assurance to business users that our team will be able to call on nbn Co technicians 24/7 should their service require it . W e have been able to pass on a price reduction across the board for these plans, as well as see the introduction of a new tier.

Further information on the underlying changes

Removal of CVC on high tier plans

One of the most dramatic changes coming to the new nbn Co wholesale structure is the partial removal of a usage charge called Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC). CVC has been a contriversial charge established in the early days of nbn Co that charges providers for network utilisation.

Over the years, CVC has been criticised for artificially slowing the growth of Australia's internet speed, initially resulting in congestion charges where budget providers did not purchase enough CVC. To more recent times where CVC has been blamed for rising costs.

The removal of CVC charges on speed tiers of 100Mbps and above ( Home & Small Offfice Fast ) will allow many providers to pass on a welcome price reduction across the plans that are becoming increasingly popular for Australian households and businesses.

Accounting utilisation per service

Under the previous model, the CVC utilisation nbn Co charged was pooled across all services, meaning the price of entry level and low usage services were affected by high utilisation from heavier users.

With the new model, services on lower tier plans that exceed the bundled CVC inclusion will be charged for the utilisation overages with a ceiling in place.

This change means providers, including Lightning IP, will need to adapt to changing average costs for these plans as internet usage increases across the population.

Annual Price Reviews

As part of the SAU between nbn Co and the ACCC, nbn Co will now conduct an annual price review to align all plans with current CPI. These reviews will happen mid-year and be based of the last quarter CPI and be capped at a maximum.

These price reviews also include the increase in bundled CVC for the Basic and Standard plans as well as a reduction in the overages charges for these plans. By 1 July 2026 nbn Co is aiming to remove all overages charges on the Basic and Standard plans.

This should mean we see a gradual introduction of entry level broadband plans suitable for low usage users over the next few years.

Check out our FAQ for more information

Have another question? Get in touch with a comment below, by sending us a message through our online chat, or raising a query through our contact us page .

AWBA Finalists Announcement!

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 06:23:59 GMT

We're Finalists in the Albury Wodonga Business Awards 2023!

We have some exciting news to share with you all: Lightning IP has been selected as a finalist in three categories of the prestigious Albury Wodonga Business Awards 2023!

This is a huge achievement for us, as we have been working hard to provide the best quality services and products to our customers in the region. We are passionate about what we do, and we are thrilled to be recognised for our efforts.

The Albury Wodonga Business Awards are an annual event that celebrates the excellence and innovation of local businesses across various sectors and industries. The awards are organised by Albury Business Connect and Business Wodonga, and they can attract hundreds of entries from businesses of all sizes and backgrounds.

We entered the awards in three categories: Outstanding Business in Retail & Personal Services, Outstanding Business in Professional, Financial & Business Services, and Outstanding Business Leader (Under 35 Years).

The first category recognises businesses that deliver exceptional customer service, quality products, and innovative solutions in the retail and personal services sector. This includes businesses such as hairdressers, beauty salons, florists, gift shops, cafes, restaurants, and more. With personal / residential customers making up a large portion of our customer base we are proud to be one of the finalists in this category, as we believe that our services and products are second to none in the market.

The second category recognises businesses that demonstrate excellence and professionalism in the provision of services in the professional, financial and business sector. This includes businesses such as accountants, lawyers, consultants, engineers, architects, financial planners, insurance brokers, and more. We are honoured to be one of the finalists in this category, as we believe that our services are of the highest standard and quality. We have a team of qualified and experienced professionals who can help our customers with any aspect of their business needs. We offer advice, guidance, support, and solutions that are tailored to each customer's situation and goals. We also use the latest technology and tools to ensure that our services are efficient and effective.

The third category recognises individuals who have shown outstanding leadership skills and achievements in their business or organisation. This includes individuals who have demonstrated vision, innovation, creativity, integrity, teamwork, and social responsibility. Our director Gavin James is one of the finalists in this category, and we are very proud of him. Gavin is the founder and owner of Lightning IP, and he has been leading our business since its inception. He has a wealth of experience and knowledge in the telecommunicationsindustry, and he has a vision to make Lightning IP the leading service provider in the region. He is always looking for new opportunities and challenges to grow our business and improve our services. He is also a great mentor and coach to our team members, and he fosters a culture of collaboration and excellence. He is also very involved in the community and supports various causes and organisations.

The awards aren't over yet: Lightning IP & Gavin will go through a second round of judging with one-on-one interviews. We will then have to wait patiently for the Award Gala in July to see if we can take home the top prize.

Our team are very honoured to be among some of the exemplary businesses that achieved finalist status this year, and we congratulate them all for their success.

We would also like to thank our customers for their continued support and loyalty. Without you, we wouldn't be where we are today. You are the reason why we do what we do.

We will keep you updated on our progress as we go through the next stage of the awards process. Wish us luck!

Thank you for reading our blog post. We hope you enjoyed it!

Writing Website Content

gavin@lightningip.com.au (Gavin James) — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 00:12:03 GMT

5 Tips for Writing Good Copy for Your Small Business Website

If you are a small business owner who wants to create a website for your brand, you might be wondering how to write effective and engaging copy that attracts and converts your visitors. Copywriting is the art of using words to persuade and influence your audience, and it can make a big difference in how your website performs.

However, writing good copy is not easy, especially if you are not a professional writer or marketer. You might have a lot of information to share, but you don't know how to organize it, how to make it appealing, or how to avoid common mistakes. That's why we have compiled 5 tips for writing good copy for your small business website, based on our experience of building websites for our customers.

Tip 1: Know your audience and their needs

The first step to writing good copy is to know who you are writing for and what they are looking for. You need to understand your target market, their demographics, their pain points, their goals, and their motivations. This will help you tailor your message to their needs and interests, and show them how your product or service can solve their problems or improve their situation.

To get to know your audience better, you can do some research, such as conducting surveys, interviews, or focus groups, analyzing data from your website or social media analytics, or creating buyer personas. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers that include details such as their name, age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, challenges, and preferences. You can use these personas to guide your copywriting and make it more personalized and relevant.

Tip 2: Write clear and concise headlines and subheadings

The headline is the first thing that your visitors see when they land on your website. It should capture their attention and entice them to read more. A good headline should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should communicate the main benefit or value proposition of your product or service, and include a keyword that relates to what your audience is searching for.

Subheadings are also important for breaking up your copy into smaller sections that are easier to read and scan. They should summarize the main points of each section and highlight the key information or features. Subheadings should also be clear, concise, and compelling. They should use action verbs or questions that encourage your visitors to continue reading.

Tip 3: Use simple and conversational language

One of the biggest mistakes that small business owners make when writing copy for their website is using complex or technical language that confuses or alienates their audience. Unless you are targeting a very specific niche that requires a certain level of jargon or terminology, you should avoid using words or phrases that are too difficult or unfamiliar for your average reader.

Instead, you should use simple and conversational language that sounds natural and friendly. You should write as if you are talking to a person face-to-face, using words that they would use and understand. You should also use the active voice instead of the passive voice, as it makes your sentences more direct and engaging. For example:

Passive voice: "Your website will be built by our team of experts."

Active voice: "Our team of experts will build your website."

Tip 4: Focus on benefits rather than features

Another common mistake that small business owners make when writing copy for their website is focusing too much on the features of their product or service rather than the benefits. Features are the characteristics or attributes of your product or service, such as its size, colour, speed, or functionality. Benefits are the outcomes or results that your product or service provides for your customers, such as saving time, money, or hassle.

While features are important to describe what your product or service does or how it works, benefits are more persuasive and appealing to your audience because they show them how your product or service can improve their lives or solve their problems. Therefore, you should always emphasize the benefits over the features in your copywriting.

For example:

Feature: "Our website builder has over 100 templates to choose from."

Benefit: "You can create a stunning website in minutes with our easy-to-use website builder."

Tip 5: Include a clear and strong call-to-action

The last tip for writing good copy for your small business website is to include a clear and strong call-to-action (CTA) at the end of each page or section. A CTA is a statement or button that tells your visitors what you want them to do next after reading your copy. It could be signing up for a free trial, requesting a quote, downloading a guide, contacting you for more information, or buying your product or service.

A good CTA should be clear, concise, and compelling. It should use action

#CelebrateLate

daniel@lightningip.com.au (Daniel Anderson) — Tue, 05 May 2020 05:21:51 GMT

This year, #CelebrateLate and support your local businesses

Covid-19 has affected our favourite local bars, restaurants and eateries with many being forced to temporarily close up business.

We have been amazed at how quickly the food and entertainment industries has adapted to delivery and ready-for home meals, along with live streaming music on Facebook and Twitch. This has all been excellent to see and is great to help them to survive, however, it's not a sustainable future.

We've thought, what's something that we can do to support these businesses when restrictions are eventually lifted and we can return for a meal or a show.

So we thought of the idea to #CelebrateLate!

Have you had something to celebrate whilst social distancing and isolation measures have been in affect?

#CelebrateLate - A hashtag local venues can use to promote their commitment to hosting future functions and events.

When the social distancing measures have lifted, make sure customers know you will be there to help them with their celebrations!

Local businesses can get onboard by creating a #CelebrateLate promotion and offering Gift Vouchers etc.

We've also created a mini marketing pack to help you get started!

Launching our new look

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 07:37:05 GMT

We have a fresh new look

Some fancy new backgrounds

We started of with the iconic red colour from our logo, ran it through a complimentary colour engine, and fished out a few colours we liked. From there it was just a matter of replicating our new "slider" background image that you will see throughout our website.

With the new colours, we will be using them to help identify our different product ranges.

Purple for our home and small business nbn plans
Blue for our premium business nbn plans
Black for our enterprise ethernet plans
Teal for our voice products
Orange for our cloud products

A range of fresh icons

A new look requires some new icons, so we found a new icon library that matched the look we are going for perfectly, we hope you agree. We believe the icons represent themselves with simplicity while also being well defined enough that you can tell what they represent. Much like our own values.

Fibre to the Node (FTTN) & Your Home/Office Cabling

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 07:35:25 GMT

Is my premises cabling really causing slow speeds?

NBN can be quick to conclude that customer cabling is the culprit for slow speed issues and drop outs – but can the cabling in your house cause such a problem?

In Short, Yes.

Your internal cabling can make a significant difference in the stability and speed of your nbn Fibre-to-the-Node service.

Let’s take a trip back in time, back to when our telephone network simply handled plain old telephone services (or POTS for short).

Generally, the wiring inside your home didn’t really matter too much – as long as the wires were connected – you could hear the person on the other end.

There were 2 typical ways in which homes were cabled, which were “Daisy-Chained” or “Star Topology”.

We can touch on these below:

So what difference does this cabling make??

The attainable data rates for the Daisy Chain and Star configurations are shown in the Table below.
(Please note that the baseline data rates were measured at 86.7Mbits/s downstream, 32.9Mbits/s upstream.)

As you can see, the presence of Star and/or Daisy Chained Cabling can have a significant reduction in your lines max attainable rate (max throughput speed).

In this particular study, the daisy chain configuration observed a 47% reduction in downstream and 1% reduction upstream. In the star configuration, there was a 62% reduction downstream and 23% reduction upstream.

What can I do?

For the best performance on the nbn Fibre-to-the-Node network, we recommend that our customers contact a local licensed telecommunications cabler to have their home cabling remedied.

New and old homes can benefit from premise cabling remediation and nbn frequently request that a customers internal cabling be checked to assist in resolving a fault.

What do the nbn service classes mean?

daniel@lightningip.com.au (Daniel Anderson) — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 05:24:39 GMT

You may have seen reference to "service classes" when referring to the nbn™ .

A service class tells your retail service provider (RSP) about the infrastructure that will be supplying a premise and the readiness of the infrastructure.

Some service classes indicate that all infrastructure is in place and ready to go, whereas other classes may indicate that additional work is required to connect your premise to the network.

nbn Fibre to the Premise Service Classes

nbn Fixed Wireless Service Classes

nbn Satellite Network Service Classes

Unfortunately, Lightning IP does not offer service on the nbn Satellite network, the below is for your information only.

nbn Fibre to the Node/Building Service Classes

nbn Hybrid Fibre Coaxial Service Classes

nbn Fibre to the Curb Service Classes

All a bit much?

This information can seem a bit technical and full of industry terms.

If you have any questions about your premise and getting connected to the nbn™ network, reach out to our local support team who will be more than happy to assist you.

Why choose a local service provider for NBN

gavin@lightningip.com.au (Gavin James) — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 00:25:38 GMT

When it comes to choosing your internet provider for your home or office NBN connection, it's time to throw out your previous ideas on what makes a good provider.

A brief history

Let us take a look at how the national broadband network has changed the way you need to consider your internet provider. NBN Co is what is known in the industry as a "wholesale access provider network". That means, NBN Co, provides a way for internet service providers a technology agnostic way to connect their customers to the internet.

In the past, it was only larger providers that were able to afford to build and maintain this type of network, with only one company (take a guess which one) having been able to provide complete national coverage. In this environment, local ISPs would have to purchase access and data rates from a wholesaler and add their markup, leaving their competitiveness and profitability up to the larger wholesale networks.

Now, however, local ISPs are on the same playing field as the big corporates, paying the same rates over the same technology. As in all things, it is not just that simple, so what else differs between a local and national service provider.

A personalised service

Whether you are connecting your business or home, service providers always seem to have the same layout of plans and hardware that they have spent millions of dollars designing and now what to squeeze and change how you do things to fit their environment.

With a local service provider, they can properly take the time to understand your needs and build a service to suit your needs. Even if you feel your simple setup of WiFi and a home phone is no big deal, consider that some larger providers require you to use their modem in order for the phone to work, and well, that cheap modem they just gave you doesn't reach the media room, so no netflix on the tv unless you add additional extenders or recable your house, turning that simple setup in to an ever increase complex network.

Supporting local business

We've all heard it before, but supporting local business is great for the local economy. Even if the plans are a couple of dollars more than some national providers, you can know that money spent with a local provider will eventually trickle down to a cafe, a sporting club or at the local market. But, there is also the jobs created, marketing, support, sales and admin, all roles that need to be filled locally as the business grows.

Getting help from your service provider

Providing help and support has always been a thorn in the side of the telecommunications industry. Even the large ISPs with all their resources still don't seem to be able to get it right. But, that's where your local provider can make a difference. With a smaller more focused customer base, getting support from a local ISP should be simple as you will probably have the owner's mobile in your contact list.

Not only that, but as an owner of a local ISP, I can tell you that keeping you as a customer means a lot more to me than it does to the larger telco. Reputation aside, keeping a customer connected is my livelyhood and affects my ability to support my family financially, and to me, there is no bigger motivator.