Farmers are concerned the state's regional digital infrastructure will not withstand the substantial pressure as coronavirus forces schools and individuals to work from home.
Millions of Australians are now working from home, placing unprecedented pressure on NBN, wifi and mobile services, which has seen Netflix reduce the size of its video streaming service to relieve the national network load.
Capacity constraints and priority criteria have been established, with first responders and health and management services, followed by critical government infrastructure organizational use, at the top of the list.
In Victoria, there are 15,102 active Sky Muster users.
Carlie Barry, of Woolvie Jerseys and Holsteins, near Carpendeit, said her maximum monthly 200gigabites of data was used up, a week before it was due to expire.
"We have a teenager home less than a week, and our monthly 200GB of maximum data has been used up," Ms Barrie said.
Sky Muster services are subject to what is known as the nbn Fair Use Policy, which requires telecommunications companies and customers to only using 200GB in any four weeks.
'You're going to need to look at upgrading the fair use policy, nbn," Ms Barrie said on social media.
She said 200GB was the maximum amount of data she, and husband Owen could buy.
But she said the property's 300 cow dairy herd had Semex collars, which also used the internet.
"There is no information from the collars going to the computer system because there is no internet," Ms Barrie said.
Information gathered from the collars was used in joining programs and to monitor herd health.
She said she couldn't use the internet in the dairy, so was forced to hotspot her phone.
"That's expensive, so I don't want to do that, too often," she said.
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Southern Riverina mixed farmer Michael Hughes, Pretty Pine, said Sky Muster was "hopeless" where he lived.
"It has poor speed and is costly," Mr Hughes said.
"Wireless broadband is limited and intermittent, at best."
He said he had just bought a booster and better quality wireless router, which had improved performance.
While there did not appear to be a noticeable correlation with coronavirus, a number of meetings and appointments had been moved to video online conferencing.
"That's very challenging and we have had to resort back to voice only on the copper landline."
John Lakey runs Ryeland sheep, Saler-cross cattle, goats and has a vineyard at his Sunbury property.
He said he, and his wife, sold produce directly, and through farmers' markets, with all bills going out on the internet.
"You think you have sent a bill out and the system has crashed in the middle of it, so you have no way of confirming it."
But he said Sky Muster was notoriously unreliable.
"The biggest concern I have is what's going to happen when everyone is on the internet," Mr Lakey said.
"There are times when some of our systems won't hook onto Sky Muster."
Wet and cloudy conditions hampered coverage.
"We try to find somewhere where we can get mobile reception; we drive around until we can find a connection."
Sky Muster, although it was less reliable, was still cheaper.
He was also critical of the inability for data balances to stretch the whole month.
NBN Co has said customers on standard Sky Muster services would have data download limits increased significantly.
At the same time, Sky Muster Plus users will see an increased range of applications, that will not count towards monthly data quotas.
From March 31, for three months, nbn will increase the download data limits that apply to the standard Sky Muster service, providing an additional 45GB, at no extra cost.
NBN Co Rural and Regional Chief Development officer Gavin Williams said the company was expecting a higher number of people in regional and remote communities to work from home, with more children to be schooled remotely.
"In preparation for this greater demand for data and based on feedback from internet retailers and customers, we have decided to take this action to provide additional support for that expected increase in day-time usage expected to increase due to increased activity on the network," he said.
"nbn will continue to monitor data usage together with internet retailers closely, and will seek to implement any additional measures required were available including monitoring of the peak times, to support customers during these uncertain times."
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Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
