3 Things to Check Before You Buy the NBN
So you've finally been connected to the NBN. Hooray! It's almost time for you and the family to dive into endless Netflix, games, video chats and a whole lot more. But wait, before you take the plunge there are four important things you must check to make sure you have a great NBN experience.
Are you getting the best deal?
You can save as much as $500 a year on the NBN just by shopping around. No joke. There are more low cost, high quality internet providers around than ever before and they're hungry for your business. Many of them offer their plans no-contract which means you'll never be committed. And because NBN infrastructure is the same for every provider, no matter who you go with you should be able to expect a decent level of performance.
Here are just a few of the best NBN deals going right now. We've looked at NBN 50 speed plans with unlimited data (best for most households), but if you prefer a different type of plan you can use Whistleout's full search engine here.
Need a plan with a home phone bundle? Here are some of the best offers we know about:
What NBN speed do you need?
Choosing the wrong NBN speed can cause all sorts of problems for your household – poor performance and drop outs if it's too slow and high monthly bills if it's too fast. But picking the right speed is easy. Here's what you need to know:
NBN 12, aka Basic Speed – best for small households (1-2 people) and light users. Speeds roughly equivalent to ADSL. Best plans:
NBN 50, aka Standard Plus Speed – best for medium households (2-4 people) and heavy users. Speeds roughly 4x faster than ADSL. Best plans:
NBN 100, aka Premium Speed – best for large households (4+ people) and those who regularly download and upload large files. Speeds roughly 8x faster than ADSL. Best plans:
What are your carrier's evening speeds?
Remember how we said most carriers will provide you with a decent NBN experience? That's true. But some carriers provide more decent experiences than others. That's down to NBN evening speeds – the expected speed of your connection during peak times when the whole neighbourhood is streaming the same show on Netflix.
Many providers now advertise average evening speeds experienced by their customers so it's always worth looking for that information before making a decision. At WhistleOut, we keep track of carrier's advertised evening speeds and while it may not surprise you to hear Optus and Telstra do quite well, you can get just as fast if not better from the following low cost providers:
- amaysim
- Aussie Broadband
- Flip TV
- Tangerine
Compare NBN 50 plans with at least 1000GB and fast evening speeds here:
Jacqui Dent is associate editor at WhistleOut, Australia's largest mobile phone and internet comparison site.
As a result of services provided by us, WhistleOut Pty Ltd may pay The FiftyUp Club a portion of any fee of that they receive from their providers. These fees may be based on either referrals to third parties or on application or approval for products from third party providers.
