Education

This page will provide an increasing range of links and information to provide support to you as a student, and to students you support.

It currently focusses on student-specific plan and options, and we’ll continue to add information over time.

We particularly recommend the “Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association” website, which has a very extensive range of vital information.

The information on this page has been developed by BIRRR in consultation with the ICPA.

nbn™ Sky Muster™ satellite service – education ports and plans

nbn™ Sky Muster satellite service offers specific plans or services to support the needs of distance education, in the form of the “education port”.

An nbn™ Sky Muster™ Education Port is a dedicated port in the nbn™ modem (network termination device, or NTD), specifically designed for distance education and home school students (preschool, primary & secondary) who are mapped to receive nbn™ Sky Muster™.

The port enables each eligible student to access a set amount of data for education (50GB per student, limited to 150GB per Sky Muster NTD).

Each state department of education decides on eligibility requirements for the nbn™ Sky Muster Educational Port and how it is delivered.

You may need to provide a Student ID number from your child’s school to order an Education Port.

  • QLD, NT & SA: the end-user (YOU) is responsible for the ordering and payment of the education port (you are eligible for an allowance to help subsidise the cost of the internet connection).
  • NSW & WA: the Department of Education organises the connection and payment
  • Vic & Tas: there is no subsidised port available.

See the list of list of ISPs offering education ports and nbn Sky Muster™ Plus below.

Note that while nbn Fair Use Policies will be “relaxed” for the educational port, it will be up to your Internet Service Provider to have the final say on the types of plans offered, including costs and data limits.

Queensland

Queensland has a broadband internet subsidy, which provides an annual payment of $500 to eligible students to assist with provision of broadband internet access. This is available to students currently enrolled at a State School of Distance Education for a minimum of 6 months continuous enrolment.

New South Wales

You will need to contact your school directly regarding an Education Port.

Western Australia

You will need to contact your school directly regarding an Education Port.

  • Primary Students must be enrolled in a School of the Air (any one of 5 schools at Kalgoorlie, Meekatharra, Carnarvon, Port Hedland or Kimberley).
  • Secondary Students must be enrolled in the School of Isolated and Distance Education (SIDE) – these students must request access, as it is not automatically offered.

Once enrolled, the school Principal will request and pay for an nbn™ Sky Muster™ satellite service through the Department’s Customer Service Centre. The service is ordered by the Department’s Information and Communications Division through the RSP (currently Clear Networks).

The nbn™ Sky Muster satellite service is fully funded by the Department.

nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus vs Education Port

If you are home-schooling or educating via distance education in QLD, SA, VIC, TAS & NT, you may like to investigate an nbn™ Sky Muster Plus satellite plan instead of the education port. Note that the education port is not available with nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plans.

nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus Plans can provide you with:

  • unlimited unmetered data for schooling. Services such as Blackboard, emails, Dropbox, One Drive, web browsing, video conferencing, etc are unmetered. That is, they don’t count in your usage & are never slowed.
  • a data allowance for metered content, things like You Tube, Tik Tok, Netflix, Stan, Kayo etc (video streaming & VPN).
  • a speed burst (when the network allows, speeds of up to 50mbps down and 15mbps up can be achieved).

We advise that you analyse your current data use on your Education Port and consider whether switching to a small Plus plan (either 25GB or 50GB, depending on the number of children in your classroom). See Plus Plans.

The majority of your children’s schooling requirements will be unmetered, which means Sky Muster Plus represents better value for money than an education port for QLD, SA, VIC, TAS & NT users.

nbn estimates that, on average, 70% of your current usage will be unmetered. This is likely to be higher for current education port accounts.

Online Education

List of ISPs offering education ports and nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus

At the time of writing, the following providers offer neither Education nor nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plans:

  • Bordernet
  • iiNet
  • Westnet

The following ISPs offer either nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus and/or Educational plans.

ISP
Activ8Me nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan Educational plan
Clear Networks nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan Educational plan
Harbour IT nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan Educational plan
IPSTAR nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan Educational plan
Reachnet nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan Educational plan
SkyMesh nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan Educational plan
ANT Communications nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan n/a
Southern Phone nbn™ Sky Muster™ Plus plan n/a