Relief funding for customers affected by 2022 floods
During February and March, communities across Queensland and New South Wales have been experiencing the devastating effects of major flooding.
This includes outages on the nbn™ network due to widespread mains power loss and flood damage to nbn™ infrastructure.
While nbn™ service restoration and infrastructure repairs are progressing well – where it’s safe to do so – nbn will now also offer support, via service providers, to flood affected communities through a financial assistance package.
Flood relief funding
Homes and businesses that have experienced outages on the nbn™ network due to the recent and ongoing flood may soon be able to request financial relief directly through their phone and internet provider*.
A total of up to $6 million in nbn Flood Relief Funding will be made available to eligible phone and internet providers, which can then be passed on to their end customers.
Phone and internet providers will be able to apply a once-off, upfront credit for flood-affected end customers – across homes and businesses – who experienced a flood-related disruption to their services over the nbn™ network for more than 24 hours during the eligibility period.
Funding is also available for flood-affected end customers whose homes or businesses have sadly been determined to be lost or uninhabitable.
How to apply
Relief funding will be available for eligible services affected by the flood event between 25 February 2022 and 30 April 2022.
Flood-affected end customers should contact their phone and internet provider directly to confirm if their provider is eligible for the relief funding and, if so, to discuss their own eligibility.
nbn will continue to monitor the ongoing situation closely and, if needed, may revise the funding available and/or decide to extend the funding’s duration.
Restoration efforts
Since the beginning of the floods, more than 325,000 services over the nbn™ network have been impacted, with more than 302,000 so far restored across Queensland and New South Wales.
Where possible we have kept services over the nbn™ network operating, deploying generators to restore power to core nbn™ infrastructure once immediate flood waters have passed, where we have had access, and where it has been safe to do so.
We are working closely with our phone and internet providers; emergency services; Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications; governments; regulators; our delivery partners; and the industry to maintain the highest possible availability and continuity of essential nbn™ telecommunications services throughout affected areas.
Updates will continue to be available on our dedicated blogs for Queensland and New South Wales during the flood event, including the locations of emergency free Wi-Fi connectivity via the nbn™ Sky Muster™ satellite service.