If you've been burned by a setup fee that appeared out of nowhere, we don't blame you for checking. Here's exactly what you pay.
What you pay each month
Two numbers, and one of them is optional.
Your monthly plan. The price you picked is the price you keep. No introductory rate that quietly climbs in six months.
$6 a month for a router, if you rent one from us. You can skip it by bringing your own.
For most people that's the entire bill. If you rent a router it appears as a line on the same invoice as your plan, so there's nothing separate to keep an eye on.
About the $6 router
The one we send arrives already set up for your connection. Plug it into your fibre box, plug in the power, and you're on. No settings to wade through, no numbers to type in.
You're not obliged to take it. If you've already got a router you're happy with, bring it and skip the $6 entirely. Have a look at Can I use my own modem or router with Plio? to check yours will work first. It's worth two minutes now rather than a frustrating evening later.
To be upfront: there's no further discount for bringing your own beyond the $6 you're not paying. Your plan costs the same either way.
When does the first payment come out?
Not when you order. This is the bit worth knowing.
We save your payment method at checkout rather than billing you. Your first payment comes out when your connection actually goes live, and that's the day your billing month starts.
You may see a small card check of a few cents at checkout, which clears by itself within a few days. It isn't payment for your service.
So if your connection date shifts, your first bill shifts with it. You're never paying for internet you can't use yet.
What about getting fibre installed?
If there's no fibre at your place yet, your local fibre company does the physical work, running the line in from the street and fitting the box inside.
For the vast majority of homes, this costs you nothing. A standard residential install is covered under the UFB programme, and that's what most people get. If your place is a typical house on a typical street, you can stop reading here.
When an install isn't standard
Some properties need more work than a standard install covers. It's not common, but it does happen, and when it does there is a real cost. We'd rather tell you that plainly here than have it come as a surprise later.
The usual reasons a job goes beyond standard:
A long driveway, or a lot of ground between the street and your front door
A shared right-of-way or a route across a neighbour's land, which needs their consent
An apartment or multi-unit building, where the building owner or body corporate has to approve the work
Extra internal wiring: running the connection through to a different room, or through walls, beyond what a standard install includes
An existing fibre box that needs moving to a more useful spot
Adding a power point where the fibre box is going
How we handle it if that's you
Nothing happens without a quote and your say-so. That's the whole promise, and it's a simple one.
Often it's the technician who works this out once they're at your property and can see what the job actually involves. If they find it's beyond a standard install, they don't just carry on and bill you. The work stops there, the fibre company quotes it to us, and we bring you the number.
From there it's entirely your call. You can go ahead, ask us whether there's a cheaper way to do it (sometimes there is), or decide it's not worth it and walk away. If you walk away at that point, you won't have paid us a cent.
You'll never get a bill from the fibre company. Their work is billed to us and we pass it on, so there's one company to talk to about it and one invoice to look at, and it's a number you've already seen and agreed to.
What we will never do is finish work and hand you a bill you didn't know was coming. If you haven't seen a number and said yes to it, it isn't coming.
Not sure about something?
If you're looking at anything and can't tell whether it costs money, just ask us. There's no such thing as a silly question here, and we'd far rather answer it now than have you find the answer on an invoice.