Our reliance on a fast, stable internet connection has never been more important. It’s estimated the average Australian home will have 33.8 connected devices in 2025, including phones, tablets, TVs, smart security systems, smart wall outlets and even smart garden devices. Having a fast NBN plan will not only ensure all your connected devices will work as smoothly as possible, but will futureproof you for when that average figure inevitably increases.
A higher speed NBN connection, such as an NBN 250 or NBN 1000 plan, will also allow you and your family to download huge files and install games quickly, simultaneously stream 4K video on multiple devices without a stutter, and more. And there really has never been a better time to try these faster NBN speeds, as the prices of these plans has been decreasing practically on a monthly basis, to the point where they can now cost just AU$15 to AU$20 more than much slower plans.
Cheaper and faster than ever
We’ve been monitoring monthly price changes of NBN plans since September 2023. Back then, the average monthly cost of a gigabit (aka NBN 1000) internet plan was just over AU$140, but it now sits at around AU$120 – a huge AU$20 difference that represents AU$240 saved over the course of a year. It’s a similar story for NBN 250 plans as well. In September 2023, we recorded an average monthly cost of approximately AU$117, but this has since dropped to around AU$106 per month.
Conversely, the opposite is true of slower NBN 50 plans, which have instead seen a steady average monthly price increase in the same period. In September 2023, we recorded an average cost of roughly AU$77, but it now sits at around AU$84. The average cost of an NBN 100 plan is AU$91 – just AU$7 more than a 50Mbps plan – further highlighting the lack of value with the slower NBN 50 speed tier.
It’s not just prices that are improving on higher speed NBN plans either, but the average download speed too, with many providers getting closer and closer to delivering true gigabit internet. Just at the start of the 2024 in January, the average download speed on an NBN 1000 plan was 509Mbps. Fast forward 11 months and the figure now sits at around 788Mbps, with a handful of providers advertising NBN 1000 plans with typical evening speeds (that’s the speed you can realistically expect to achieve in the busy even hours of 7pm to 11pm) well in excess of this.
Why the need for speed?
It’s all very well talking about how NBN 1000 has gotten significantly cheaper and faster, but what will you be able to do with all that extra speed?
It should go without saying that any files you download, whether it be video streams from your favourite services, documents from cloud storage or large game installations, will all complete much faster. An 80GB game install, for example, would take approximately 10 minutes to download on a gigabit NBN plan, compared to over 3 hours on an NBN 50 plan. An NBN 250 plan should see your download complete in under 45 minutes, too.
As we mentioned earlier, the average number of connected devices in Australia households is only expected to grow, and having a faster NBN connection can help ensure they all function as expected. And, if you have multiple people in your home all clamouring for internet access at the same time, such as streaming 4K video in different rooms or engaging in online gameplay, the extra bandwidth afforded by a higher speed NBN plan can help ensure everyone remains happy.
The only thing you need to facilitate these ultrafast speeds is an NBN connection type that supports them – that’s fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coax (HFC). If you don’t already have one of these, you can potentially get a free fibre upgrade via Superloop, as long as you sign-up for at least a 100Mbps NBN plan. NBN Co has announced that 80% of the current fixed-line network can now access these higher-speed plans and 90% can expect to access it by the end of 2025.
