General customer terms

Using your service

You need to use the right equipment

The equipment you use with your service must comply with relevant standards. You can find these standards on the Australian Communication Media Authority’s website. If we ask, you must make any changes to your equipment to avoid any danger or interference it may cause.

How we connect your service

We use reasonable care and skill in providing our service. However, given the nature of telecommunications systems, we can’t promise that your service will be continuous, accessible at all times, or fault-free.

You have rights under consumer protection laws such as the Competition & Consumer Act 2010 (Commonwealth) that may apply to goods or services we supply.

We don't support specialised services

Belong doesn't support specialised services such as medical alarms, security cameras or fire indicator panels

Keeping your account information secure

You must keep your account information, password, data and equipment secure. We’re not responsible for any loss or damage that results from you failing to keep this information safe.

Keeping your details up to date

You must keep your account details, contact phone number and email address, up to date. You should regularly check the email address that you’ve shared, as we'll use this and your mobile number to notify you on changes to your service.

Tracking your usage

Track your usage by logging in to your Belong account via our app, or on our website. We’ll also send you alerts when you’re close to your monthly data limit. If you’re on an unlimited data plan, you can’t track your usage on our website, and we won’t send you alerts.

Maintaining your service

You can use our technical support services for problems with your service. We’ll do what we reasonably can to fix the problem as soon as possible. However:

• we don’t provide technical support for setting up and connecting your home network to your service, or for any home network-related difficulties;

• if we need to send a technician out to troubleshoot your service, and we don’t think there’s a service problem, or that we didn’t cause the service problem, we may charge you a service fee that will be notified prior to our site visit;

• you’ll need to make any changes to your equipment we ask you during troubleshooting, and follow any reasonable requests we make in order to maintain or restore your service;

• we don’t repair or maintain your equipment; and

• all cabling and equipment on your side of the network boundary point is your responsibility, including an nbn battery replacement if it’s outside the warranty period.

Acceptable use policy

Our services are for personal use

We provide our services for mainly personal use. You must only use, and allow a service to be used, for that purpose.

Ordinary, personal use of your service won’t breach this Acceptable Use Policy.

Service limitations

Don’t use or attempt to use your service, or allow your service to be used, in a way which:

• breaches these customer terms, the law or any relevant code or regulation;
• causes us to breach, or be involved in a breach, of any law or any relevant code or regulation;
• infringes the rights of a third party, including their intellectual property rights;
• is commercial or business use. This includes use that’s not personal, household or domestic, reselling the service to a third party, making the service available to people outside your household, or running an internet café on the service;
• creates or distributes viruses, malware, anti-security programs;
• could result in us incurring a liability to any person;
• significantly interferes with other customers' use or enjoyment of a service or interferes with how we operate our services;
• engages in conduct or activity that we believe could adversely affect or prejudice the Belong reputation or brand; or
• attempts to manipulate or bypass any limitations on your service by any means.

We may review how you use your service

We may monitor and review your use of the service to make sure it complies with this policy. We’ll do so in accordance with our privacy statement. This may include verifying that your use is for personal and ordinary use, as well as getting in touch to talk about your usage. By signing up to a service with us, you agree to co-operate on these terms, which can include explaining your usage of your service.

Keeping your details up to date

You must keep your account details, contact phone number and email address, up to date. You should regularly check the email address that you’ve shared, as we'll use this and your mobile number to notify you on changes to your service.

If you use your service in a non-ordinary way

Using your service in a non-ordinary way, even if it’s for personal use, may be a breach of this Acceptable Use Policy, Non-ordinary use includes:

• if it looks like your service is infected with a virus or other malicious software;

• an unusually high number of devices associated with your service;

• a significant and unusually high volume of uploads;

• your contact address being associated with more than one Belong service at your address;

• regular use of the service for sending or receiving bulk emails;

• the address for your service is within a non-residential council zone and your service may be associated with being used mainly for a business purpose;

• information from public directories about you or your service of a commercial nature;

• the use of business names as your contact email; and

• other usage characteristics that we consider aren’t consistent with ordinary personal use.

If you breach our Acceptable Use Policy

Breaching our Acceptable Use Policy may be a breach of our customer terms, which means we could suspend or cancel your service.

Suspension or cancellation of your service

Your right to cancel this service

You can cancel your service by notifying us. We’ll cancel your service at the end of the current monthly bill cycle if it’s a fixed service, or within 24 hours if it’s a mobile service. It may take up to 24 hours to process your request, so you’ll need to let us know at least 24 hours before the start of the next monthly bill cycle. If you cancel your service, we won’t refund any fees that you’ve already paid to us, including any upfront fees.

If you’re on a month-by-month plan and you cancel it after activation but before your first monthly bill you’ll be charged one month’s plan charge.

If you’re on a contract with a fixed service and you cancel after activation but before the contract has ended, you’ll be charged an Early Termination Charge. We’ll deduct this fee from your credit card or PayPal account.

You’ll need to pay the outstanding balance of the nbn New Development Charge if you’re in a newly constructed building and:

• you’ve got a fixed service on a contract, you’ve elected to pay your nbn New Development Charge in monthly instalments, and you move or cancel your service early, or

• you are on a month to month contract and paying the nbn New Development Charge in monthly instalments, and you move or cancel your service before you have paid the nbn New Development Charge in full.

Our right to cancel your service

We can cancel your service:

• if you’ve seriously breached these terms, we’ve notified you in writing that you’ve breached them, and you don’t fix the breach within 30 days, where the breach can be fixed;

• immediately if you’ve seriously breached these terms, and the breach can’t be fixed; and

• immediately for a non-serious breach of these terms, if there are serious consequences, and that breach can’t be fixed.

If we give you as much warning as we reasonably can, we can also cancel your service if:

• we get your consent;

• we’re legally required to do so, or if providing your service becomes illegal or we believe on reasonable grounds that it may become illegal;

• new regulation is introduced, and we’re unable to continue providing a service to you at all or on these same terms;

• you become bankrupt or insolvent or appear likely to do so;

• you vacate the premises your service is connected to;

• we’re unable to provide a service to you due to an event outside our reasonable control (such as a failure in equipment that is not owned or operated by us, an industrial strike or an act of God); or

• we do what we reasonably can to offset any impact the cancellation will have on you (for example by crediting you or offering a rebate).

If we cancel your service, you still need to pay us charges incurred before it was cancelled.

Our right to limit or suspend your service

If we give you reasonable notice, we can limit or suspend your service if:

• we’re allowed to cancel your service based on these terms but choose not to;

• we believe these were breached and we need to investigate; or

• we need to for the purpose of maintenance, integrity, protection or restoration of our networks or the users of our networks.

If we need to limit or suspend your service for maintenance reasons, usually we’ll give you 24 hours’ notice. If the maintenance is urgent, we’ll give you as much notice as we reasonably can.

If we suspend your service (other than for your non- payment), we’ll refund any fees that you paid for the period your service was suspended.

Our right to migrate your service

If we give you reasonable notice, we may migrate you to an alternative service or pricing plan. If you're not satisfied with the alternative service or pricing plan, you can cancel your service and any ETCs will be waived.

Liability

Business use of our services

We provide your service for personal use only, so we’re not liable for any losses you incur if you use your service for business use. However, we’ll be liable if it can’t be excluded under any legislation.

If you’ve used your service for business purposes, for any liability that can’t be excluded by law but can be limited, we limit our liability to resupplying, or paying the cost of resupplying services and repairing or replacing, or paying the cost of repairing or replacing goods.

Our liability to you

We’ll be liable to you for anything that can’t be excluded or limited by law, including under consumer protection laws.

We may be liable to you if we breach our contract, for negligence, or if we breach any non-excludable rights under consumer protection laws. In particular, we may be liable to you for breach of contract, or for negligence as set out by the courts that results in:

• any personal injury or death to you, your employees, agents and contractors in relation to us supplying your service;

• any real or tangible damage to your property resulting from us supplying your service, but our liability is limited to us choosing to either repair or replace the property, or paying the cost of repairing or replacing it; and

• any other cost or expense incurred resulting from our breach or negligence (excluding loss of profits, likely savings and data), and our liability is limited for all such claims to the total cost of your first year of service.

However, we won’t be liable for any loss that’s caused by you (for example, through your negligence or breach of contract).

Also, where permitted by law, we won’t be liable for any loss caused if we’re unable to meet our obligations regarding your service due to events outside our reasonable control (such as a failure in equipment that is not owned or operated by us, an industrial strike or an act of God).

Common terms

Transferring obligations

You can’t transfer your rights and obligations for your service without our consent, which we won’t unreasonably withhold.

Every now and then, we may need another provider to deliver part of your service to you. We may transfer or replace our rights and obligations for your service to a provider that agrees to the conditions of these terms.

Notices

If we need to get in touch regarding your service, we may mail or email you, or send you an SMS, to the contact information you gave us when you signed up.

No waiver of rights

These rights that you or we have under these terms aren’t waived because they’re not exercised, or if there’s a delay in exercising them.

Survival of certain clauses

Clauses relating to charges, privacy and liability survive cancellation of your service.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Australian State or Territory that you receive your service in.

References to inclusive terms

In these terms, references to “includes,” “including,” “such as”, “for example” and similar words or phrases have the same meaning and are not terms of limitation, but rather are to be read as being followed by the words “without limitation.”

Defined terms

Certain words have defined meanings as follows:

ADSL service means an ADSL broadband service or an ADSL bundle.

ADSL broadband service means the broadband service we provide from the modem to the internet, being either an ADSL2+ or ADSL broadband service.

ADSL bundle means the combination of an ADSL broadband service and a limited phone service.

business customer means any customer who we believe carries on a business, and includes:

(a) an individual whose White Pages entry incorporates a business reference; or

(b) a company registered under the Corporations Act having an ACN or an ARBN/ABN or any other body corporate; or

(c) an association or club (whether incorporated under Associations Incorporation Legislation or not) that is not a non-profit organisation or charitable organisation.

fixed service means an ADSL service or an nbn™ service.

GST and Tax Invoice have the meanings given in the A New Tax System (Goods and services Tax) Act 1999 (Commonwealth).

if new regulation is introduced means:

(a) a determination or notice issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the ACMA or other regulatory notice or determination; or

(b) a determination by any court; or

(c) a determination by us that, in our opinion, on reasonable grounds and acting in good faith,

the supply of your service, these terms or any action taken or required to be taken in accordance with these terms contravenes or may contravene any applicable law.

intellectual property includes all patents, designs, copyright, trade marks or circuit layout rights and any right to apply for the registration or grant of any of the above.

limited phone service means a voice service with the features and functions as described in the section of these terms headed ’A limited phone service’. Note, a limited phone service is not a standard telephone service as defined in defined in Section 6 of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection And Service Standards) Act 1999 (Commonwealth).

mobile service means mobile service, as defined in the Mobile part of these terms.

modem means the wi-fi modem that we supply to deliver an internet service or bundle to you.

nbn broadband service or nbn service means the broadband service we provide from the modem to the internet via the nbn network.

nbn co means nbn co Limited (ABN 86 136 533 741) of Level 11, 100 Arthur Street, North Sydney NSW 2060 and its related bodies corporate and their respective officers, employees, agents, subcontractors and consultants.

nbn connection box or NTD means a network termination device.

nbn equipment means any equipment that is owned, operated or controlled by nbn co.

nbn network means any network, systems, equipment and facilities used by nbn co in connection with the supply of services.

Our networks means our fixed networks and our mobile network.

Our fixed networks means our ’telecommunications network’ as defined under the Telecommunications Act 1997.

Our mobile network means the parts of Telstra’s mobile network used by Belong mobile.

premises means the location to which your fixed service will be provided.

service means a service as provided to you under these terms, and includes any goods or equipment provided in connection with that service.

we, us and our means Telstra Limited ABN 64 086 174 781 and its employees; as well as its agents, sub-agents and their respective employees.

you and your mean the customer.