Ever since the NBN speed upgrades arrived in September this year, I’ve been quite vocal in my opinion about the value offered by the NBN 500 tier. Although until now that statement has been largely speculative, due to the fact that all claims of real-world speeds have come from the providers themselves.
That’s all changed now thanks to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) releasing its latest report on measuring broadband performance. Published today (December 17), the new report confirms that the NBN 500 is more than delivering on the promised performance.
To give you a general overview of the NBN 500 tier (and before I get into some serious numbers), the ACCC confirmed that “[the] The average download speed on the upgraded NBN Home Fast plan during peak weekday hours from 7am to 11pm was 503.9Mbps, with 80.5 per cent of services on this plan achieving an average peak hour speed of over 500Mbps.” In short, NBN 500 plans are indeed delivery on speed, further cementing them as an exceptional value option for any Australian home that has access to them.
The best providers
As with previous broadband reports from the ACCC (which we often use here at TechRadar to back up any claims we make when recommending certain ISPs), performance data is broken down by provider and by time of day. The ACCC relies on monitoring customers’ real-world connections, with the nine providers named in the new report all crossing a minimum threshold of 40 total users. These providers consist of the ‘big three’ of Telstra, Optus and TPG, along with a selection of smaller providers such as Exetel and Leaptel. Data is then collected during all hours of the day and the identified busy evening hours from 19:00 to 23:00.
In what may come as surprising news to some, Optus came out on top, delivering 104.5% of advertised plan speeds at all times of the day and 103.7% during peak hours. Exetel, which regularly performs well in the ACCC reports, came a close second with 103.8% and 103.4% respectively in the same periods.
Rounding out the top three is TPG, which achieved 103.4% of advertised plan speeds in all hours and 102.8% in the busier evening hours. You can see the full graph of results in the image below.
These figures include all plans offered by a provider, so in Optus’ case that means the slower NBN 25 and faster NBN 1000 plans are also considered. In Exetel’s case, however, only NBN 500 is taken into account, as the provider has only been offering its new 500Mbps ‘One’ plan since June.
And in what could be interpreted as evidence that offering just a single plan can benefit end users (and should be simpler to manage from the provider’s perspective), Exetel was the only provider out of four in the report to successfully deliver four simultaneous 4K video streams 100% of the time. Aussie Broadband, Leaptel and Telstra were also rated – Telstra was able to consistently achieve three streams without issue, while Leaptel managed two and Aussie Broadband could only manage one.
Prove that the fiber upgrade works
The main thing to be aware of with NBN 500 (and faster) plans is that you need either a fiber to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) connection type to access them. If you don’t have one of these yet, then you’re probably eligible for NBN Co’s free fiber upgrade, which will see the necessary equipment for a FTTP connection installed at no cost. If you qualify for the latter, I would 100% recommend that you take advantage of it.
Why? Because the ACCC’s data shows that customers with the combination of an FTTP connection and an NBN 500 plan benefit the most. The data shows that this specific pairing resulted in customers achieving 102.9% of plan speeds during all hours of the day – or 514.5 Mbps – and 102.5% during peak hours – 512.5 Mbps.
On the other hand, customers on the same plan with an HFC connection only achieved 97.8% and 97.4% of plan speeds in the same respective periods.
(Interestingly, customers with an FTTP connection and an NBN 750 plan only achieved 97.6% and 97.3% of their advertised plan speed – which in my opinion just reinforces how great value NBN 500 plans are.)
Not on full fiber? No problem!
If you connect to the fixed NBN via an older technology such as fiber to the node (FTTN) or fiber to the curb (FTTC), then the maximum plan speed you can achieve is 100Mbps. While that could be all the speed less demanding households need, with 5x faster NBN 500 plans usually costing the same as their 100Mbps counterparts, getting the upgrade makes more sense in my opinion.
Still, if you’re on one of these connection types, the ACCC report also has some good news. The Consumer Monitor found that customers connecting via an FTTN connection were able to achieve 104.7% of plan speeds on NBN 25, 95.6% on NBN 50 and 90.1% on NBN 100. While the latter two figures are shy of 100%, they are not that far off. In addition, these figures represent an average of all the monitored providers.
Overall, FTTN connections across all available speed tiers achieved 95.8% of their advertised plan speed. FTTC performed well, achieving 105.1% of advertised plan speeds across all tiers available.
What plans to get?
In my opinion what the ACCC’s data ultimately shows is that you should be able to go to any NBN provider for a fast service. It therefore makes sense to choose a plan that is affordable. I’ve selected what I think are the best affordable options across each speed tier below, and you can also click through to my dedicated guides for each tier for more options.
