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Today's Topics:
1. NBN is ramping up speed tiers, with many plans set to double
or triple in speed at no extra cost (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:01:29 +0930
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] NBN is ramping up speed tiers, with many plans set to
double or triple in speed at no extra cost
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
The NBN is getting its biggest upgrade ever. Most people have no idea
By David Swan August 9, 2025
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-nbn-is-getting-its-biggest-upgrade-ever-most-people-have-no-idea-20250731-p5mj99.html
Fairly or not, Australia?s NBN has long been the butt of jokes. After years of
political football and criticisms that the network is subpar compared with
global standards ? we rank below Nicaragua and Venezuela for download speed ? a
high percentage of Australians will finally gain affordable access to
world-class broadband speeds.
The network is quietly getting its biggest ever speed upgrade in about a month,
though not all households will benefit.
What?s happening?
>From September 14, NBN is ramping up speed tiers for homes and businesses on
>fixed-line connections, with many plans set to double or triple in speed at no
>extra cost to consumers. NBN calls the new speeds a ?monumental leap forward
>for the NBN network and Australia?. The upgrade is unrelated to a deal
>announced on Tuesday for Amazon to deliver NBN satellite broadband.
In the middle of September, NBN is ramping up speed tiers for homes and
businesses.
To be specific (and slightly technical), 100 megabit download plans are going
up to 500, 250 megabit plans are going to 750 and 500 megabit plans are going
to 1000, with upload speeds also ramping up. These are big jumps and should
mean noticeable improvements ... as long as you have the gear to take advantage
of them.
To compare, when the NBN rollout began in 2011, the average household broadband
speed was just 9 megabits per second.
By the end of this year more than 10 million homes and businesses will be able
to access speeds of up to 2000 megabits per second.
Who?s getting the upgrades?
The NBN uses different types of technology, depending on where you live. If
you?re connected to the NBN with fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre
coaxial (HFC) technology you can benefit from the upgraded speeds. To check
what technology your home is on now, enter your address into the NBN website.
Customers on plans below 100 megabits or connected via fibre to the node
(FTTN), fibre to the curb (FTTC), fixed wireless or satellite technologies
won?t get the upgrades.
Will I need to do anything?
The short answer is no, at least for customers who are already on NBN?s Home
Fast, Home Superfast or Home Ultrafast plans and have a router that?s not too
old. The upgrades are happening behind the scenes, and no work at your property
will be required.
Telcos will start automatically increasing the speeds of their plans from
mid-September, and most have said they will do so without any extra cost to
consumers. If you?re not sure what plan you?re on, you should check: many
Australians are on ?Home Standard? plans, which are 50 megabits per second and
won?t be getting the speed upgrades. You can check with your provider what
speed you?re on by looking at your bill or your account details on your
provider?s website.
NBN says two-thirds of Australians haven?t upgraded their broadband plans in
five years, despite greater demand for data.
Upgrading just one speed tier could give you up to 10-times faster speeds, NBN
says. So upgrade to Home Fast, Home Superfast or Home Ultrafast if you want to
benefit from the upgraded speeds.
The last step is making sure your home equipment can keep up. NBN recommends
you update your modem about as often as you would your mobile phone, especially
if it?s older than five years. Older routers with older technology, such as
Wi-Fi 4, will be able to deliver speed of only about 100 megabits per second.
If you want the best current speeds, of up to 1000 megabits per second,
consider upgrading to a router with Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7.
What are Telstra and other telcos saying?
Each of the providers contacted by this masthead said they will pass on the
upgrades.
?We?ll be passing on NBN?s new internet speed upgrades to customers on eligible
plans and technology at no extra cost,? a Telstra spokesman said.
The NBN uses different types of technology, depending on where you live.
Optus says it will automatically enable the speed upgrades in September at no
extra cost, as will Aussie Broadband, Superloop and TPG.
?This is one of the biggest upgrades we?ve seen to the internet in years, and
we?re making sure our customers are ready to take full advantage of it,? a TPG
spokesman said. ?Some modems, regardless of how new they are, simply aren?t
built to support these higher speeds. That?s going to cause frustration, so we
want to ensure customers understand what?s changing and how to get the most out
of it.
?We?ll be contacting customers with everything they need to know, including
when their upgrade is happening, how to check their modem and what to do if a
new one is needed.?
What are consumer groups saying?
Australians don?t care who owns the NBN, they just want better broadband
The advocacy group for communications consumers, ACCAN, says customers
shouldn?t rush to upgrade unnecessarily.
?Don?t feel pressured to upgrade to a faster or more expensive plan unless
you?re confident you?ll benefit from the extra speed,? ACCAN chief executive
Carol Bennett says.
?We welcome these improvements to NBN infrastructure and speeds but also want
to ensure all consumers ? especially low-income households and those in
regional areas ? can access affordable and reliable services, not just faster
ones.?
What will this mean for Australia?s broadband rankings?
Australia most recently ranked a lowly 75 on Speedtest?s global speed rankings,
one place above Uzbekistan and just below Oman, Nicaragua, Venezuela and
Jamaica, with customers reporting an average of 88 megabits per second. Expect
this number to climb over the next few months as customers upgrade plans or
automatically have their speeds bumped up.
Will there be more upgrades in the future?
Yep. NBN has announced a ?Home Hyperfast? plan coming in the future that would
offer speeds of up to 2000 megabits per second for FTTP connections, which
would be the fastest residential NBN plan ever.
?We are actively investing in our FTTP and HFC networks to support future
technologies such as AI, smart homes and quantum computing. This continued
investment signals that further upgrades will follow to meet growing data
demands,? NBN general manager Jane McNamara says.
?In January we announced we will upgrade the remaining fibre-to-the-node
network across Australia. This investment will benefit around 622,000 homes and
businesses across the country, with more than half located in regional
Australia. The upgrades are expected to be completed by the end of 2030.?
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