Australia’s internet just got a lot faster – is your NBN plan keeping pace?
The NBN has just been overhauled and significant speed upgrades are now available from internet providers. What’s more, the new high speed plans are being offered at about the same cost as lower speed plans, providing a good opportunity to switch.
The new speed tiers are NBN 500, NBN 750 and NBN 2000. These numbers indicate the top speed available from each tier, so lightning-fast NBN 2000 plans have download speeds of up to 2,000Mbps (that’s up to 2Gbps).
Prior to this upgrade, the fastest NBN speed consumers could get was 1,000Mbps, and now that download speed has doubled.
There’s other big improvements too – if you’re an eligible household that’s currently on an NBN 100 plan, you can get a 5x speed boost up to the new NBN 500 tier. If you have an NBN 250 plan, you can be moved up to NBN 750 for about the same price.
Who’s eligible for an upgrade?
To be eligible for the NBN’s upgraded speeds, you need to have a fixed-line connection that’s either fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC).
If you’re not sure what connection type you have, you can check your address on NBN Co’s website.
If you don’t have the required connection type, you may be eligible for a free fibre upgrade to get the necessary equipment installed at your premises. You can speak to your current internet provider for more information, or visit NBN Co’s website .
Faster speeds doesn’t mean steeper prices
A number of providers are now offering the overhauled speeds, and after examining what’s available, I was surprised to find that the cost of fast internet has not dramatically increased. In plenty of cases, it’s the same price as the slower plans they’re replacing.
For example, Spintel’s NBN 100 plan is $86.95 a month, but you can move over to its new NBN 500 option for the exact same price and get a significant speed boost.