The Fastest NBN Provider, According to the ACCC

So the NBN has arrived at your house. Nervous? I wouldn’t blame you. With all the rumours flying around about bad connections and slow speeds, anyone would be feeling a bit hesitant to sign up for a brand new NBN plan.

But don’t worry. The ACCC is well aware of Australians’ concerns about NBN speeds and throughout 2018 have been running speed tests in volunteer homes across the network. The results of the latest test, run during August, have just been published. Six NBN providers have been named in the results, along with the percentage of max download speeds they achieved for their customers, on average:

• TPG - 88.7%
• Aussie Broadband - 87%
• iiNet - 85.9%
• Optus - 84.9%
• Telstra - 83.9%
• MyRepublic - 83.5%

TPG looks like clear winner in terms of fastest. But in actual fact, all results shown here are respectable and most light to moderate users of the internet would have a hard time telling the difference between a connection offered by any of these providers.

How to choose a plan

The NBN providers named in the results of the ACCC’s testing offer plans across multiple NBN speeds. But no matter which speed you choose with which provider, you should be able to expect a good experience.

Here’s the cheat’s guide to choosing the right NBN speed for you:

• NBN 25 speed: For households of 1-2 light to medium internet users
• NBN 50 speed: For households of 2-4 medium to heavy users
• NBN 100 speed: For households of 5+ medium to heavy users

Here are some plans from these providers with at least 100GB. Note that not all providers offer every speed.

NBN 25 plans

NBN 50 plans

NBN 100 plans

More about the ACCC’s speed testing

The ACCC's speed testing was conducted across 950 households receiving service from 15 providers. Of those households, only 790 were connected to the NBN. That is only about 0.00017% of NBN subscribers, according to NBN Co's September progress report. However, the ACCC says the results are statistically significant.

Of course, because of the small sample sizes, you should take the ACCC’s results with a grain of salt and pay close attention to the speeds a provider advertises with plans. The speeds TPG, Aussie Broadband, iiNet, Optus and Telstra advertise with their plans do differ a little from the ACCC’s findings, although they are all still more than satisfactory*.

It’s also important to note as well that the exact speed any provider can achieve for your home connection is dependant on a range of factors including the type of NBN connection you have and your home equipment.

You might have noticed that the percentage speeds we listed for each provider are speeds overall, rather than evening speeds (a term the industry has started using to account for slower speeds during peak times for the network). This is because the ACCC found very little difference between the speeds each provider could achieve during on and off peak times. Connections became about 1% slower between the hours of 7pm - 11pm, at worst. In other words, whichever provider you pick, you should be able to expect similar performance no matter the time of day.

*At the time of writing, MyRepublic is not advertising typical evening speeds on its plans.

Jacqui Dent is associate editor at WhistleOut, Australia's largest mobile phone and internet comparison site.

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