What is the School Student Broadband Initiative?

The days of education being comprised of blackboards, chalk and Perkins Paste are well and truly history. The modern classroom has an increasingly online focus, which matches up well with the way most of us tend to live our working and social lives.

However, while it means that the average student inhales a lot less chalk dust, it also creates a distinct digital divide when it comes to learning from home or doing homework if you’re in a situation where it’s financially impossible to have a broadband connection. That kind of access gap can have significant impacts on a child’s ability to learn and their own economic futures.

That’s what the School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) is designed to combat, making it possible for families with school age students to get online and get on with learning.

The School Student Broadband Initiative is a Federal Government-funded scheme designed to provide free home broadband for up to 30,000 families through to at least the end of December 2025.

In order to be eligible under the School Student Broadband Initiative, at a minimum your family must meet the following criteria:

• You must have a child living at home and enrolled in an Australian school (up to year 12 including Prep in Qld/Vic/Tas, Kindy in NSW, Reception in SA, Transition in NT/ACT and Pre-Primary in WA).

• You must not have an active nbn network internet service at home.

• You must live in a premises that can access the nbn network via a standard connection.
• You must not have had an active nbn connection during the previous 14 days.

This does not mean that everyone who simply hasn’t had a connection in the past two weeks will automatically qualify; if you meet the above minimums you then have to pass an eligibility check which may include address checking and certain financial questions before being approved. 

The system is designed to fund up to 30,000 families to access broadband services that they otherwise would not be able to afford, so if the scheme fills out before you apply, you may find that you’re technically eligible but unable to access the SSBI.

For some families you may find that existing services that you utilise can also nominate you for the SSBI, or you can self-nominate by going through the National Referral Centre (run by Anglicare Victoria), which you can access by phoning 1800 954 610 from Monday through Friday between AEDT or online at www.anglicarevic.org.au/student-internet.

They will guide you through the application process, and if successful, you will be issued with a voucher that can be used with participating NBN ISPs to access online services through to the current end of the scheme in December 2025.