In lower than a month, NBN Co will probably be upgrading the speeds of a number of web plans accessible on its full fibre and HFC networks, marking probably the most distinctive velocity increase because the inception of the community in 2009. It’s a transfer that’s been within the works for a very long time, and repair suppliers have been preparing for the massive change (although just a few have already jumped the gun).
If that is the primary you’re listening to about it, right here’s a fast rundown of what’s taking place: fibre-connected properties serviced by both fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coax (HFC) on an NBN 100 plan may have their service upgraded to a model new NBN 500 tier, which presents most theoretical obtain speeds of 500Mbps – or 5 instances what NBN 100 was able to. Meanwhile, NBN 250 is being upped to 750Mbps, NBN 1000 is getting a brand new minimal velocity of 750Mbps, and a brand new prime velocity of two,000Mbps (aka NBN 2000) is being launched.
It’s a very exciting time for the Australian internet, and it’s set to improve speeds to be far more competitive against other developed nations across the globe – according to independent speed-testing organisation Ookla, Australia is currently ranked 63rd for common fixed-line web speeds. NBN Co is anticipating the brand new 500Mbps-capable plan to one day be its most popular, with that hope contingent on the continued deployment – and uptake – of the fibre upgrade program.
But lots has occurred behind the scenes to facilitate this velocity increase. Retail service suppliers (RSPs) like Aussie Broadband have been constructing to this second for years. TechSwitch sat down with Aussie Broadband CSO Jonathan Prosser for a wide-ranging dialog in regards to the imminent adjustments and the way they’re going to doubtless have an effect on each suppliers and finish customers.
Getting ready for the speed boost
The NBN has morphed drastically over the years. After the country-wide rollout began in 2010, followed by a cost-saving solution to use existing copper infrastructure, the network’s speeds as a whole have lagged well behind many other countries – so when 1000Mbps-capable consumer plans were first introduced in 2020, the majority of Australian households and businesses couldn’t access it.
Today, full fibre plans are growing in uptake due to a proactive free fibre upgrade program run by NBN Co, however whereas that’s been happening, web suppliers that buy wholesale connections have been gearing up for the most important community increase, making certain alongside the way in which that buyers aren’t closely impacted by sudden enhance in demand.
“There is actually a truckload of work that we’ve had to do in order to be ready,” Prosser advised TechSwitch. “We always actively over-provisioned our CVC [the NBN bandwidth capacity in a geographic area]… what that has translated to is a very active capital management program at a network level, where we always over-invest in-year to make sure that we’re really ready for any future capacity. Because of that, we’ve been network ready for this future for quite a long time.”
One of the most important hurdles that Prosser described was a change over within the system from conventional CVC to what NBN Co calls CVC Max – a change that NBN Co launched after session with its wholesale prospects. CVC Max removes the community velocity caps of the standard CVC system, with the community now in a position to obtain immediately matched speeds with the infrastructure of NBN suppliers. “That’s a very important change and we’re very proud of our role in making that happen,” Prosser added. ”It successfully will get you thru what would have been one of the vital continuously impacted bottlenecks at a community degree.”
Aussie Broadband has mentioned that it’ll not be elevating costs as soon as the brand new speeds are launched in September, and it’s unlikely that different NBN suppliers will accomplish that both, provided that many have already elevated their plan costs in the beginning of the monetary 12 months. Rather, Aussie teased that there’ll truly be worth reductions throughout its Pro plans, which provide elevated add speeds versus their common counterparts.
There’s additionally the query of suppliers getting in on the velocity upgrades early. Early in July, Superloop-owned supplier Exetel completely changed its business model to deal with providing a single 500Mbps-capable plan, making it accessible a full two months earlier than the NBN 500 velocity tier was formally set to be launched. A handful of different NBN suppliers have since adopted swimsuit, though Aussie Broadband has no plans to hitch in.
“It’s not something that’s economical,” Prosser mentioned. “For the NBN 500 plan to be a compelling thing to buy [if introduced today] would effectively make a retail price marketably lower than your resale price.”
It’s only a matter of time
As far as Aussie is concerned, it’s ready to go come September, and doesn’t foresee any maximum speed issues with its network partners. “We don’t believe that there’ll be any greater bottleneck risk as we enter into these new high-speed plans,” Prosser added. “Really, it’s going to be an experiment once we first launch it as a nation.”
Going forward, Prosser says there will be a change in how Aussie Broadband markets its plans to make things less confusing. After all, these speed upgrades are only going to be available to FTTP and HFC customers, which means there’ll still be millions of Australian households on copper-based connections only capable of speeds of up to 100Mbps. So on top of advertising speeds, NBN providers like Aussie will need to factor in notices about technology type.
14 September, 2025 is officially the big day, and we expect most NBN providers to be offering NBN 500, NBN 750 and NBN 2000 from the get-go – until then, anyone interested in jumping to one of the new plans should check their NBN connection type, (and if necessary confirm if you can access the NBN fibre upgrade), consider upgrading your router and, clearly, be able to spend a while evaluating the best NBN plans to discover a supplier, velocity and worth that fits your wants.