Australian homes and businesses using NBN Co's interim satellite service will need to switch to an alternative NBN network as the service is shutting down on 28 February.

An announcement from NBN Co said those who were still connected to the service — about 1000 premises in all — needed to act immediately.

Residents and businesses were asked to contact their preferred Internet service provider, choose a plan that suited them and order the service as soon as possible.

NBN Co state corporate affairs manager Kylie Lindsay said the switch was not automatic and people needed to act now.

“We have been working with our retail service providers for some time now to notify users that they need to switch over to another service,” she said

“This has included numerous phone calls, direct mail, door-knocking and advertisements in newspapers and online news sites.

“However, despite our best efforts to contact people, we anticipate there will be a number of people left without a service by the end of the month.”

Lindsay said that end users could switch to a NBN broadband service or make do with a mobile solution.

The company has a special hotline — 1800 726 434 — to deal with migration issues.

NBN Co has planned for Australians living in regional areas, where it is not practical to supply broadband by other means, to be serviced by satellite.

To that end, the company launched two satellites Sky Muster I and II in October 2015 and 2016 respectively. A sum of $2 billion was spent on the two purpose-built satellites and for ground stations that make up the Sky Muster service.

The two satellites will cover 400,000 homes and businesses in regional areas.