nbn speed boost – What’s happening, when and who is affected?

It’s almost September and that got me thinking. Spring? No. The footy Grand finals? No. Father’s Day? No.

Any nerd worth their salt knows that this September sees a massive shakeup in nbn plans and the geek in me is very excited.

For those that have been living under a rock or don’t socialise with geeks, this September sees a massive upgrading of available nbn speeds across customers on Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) or Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC). The nbn have dubbed this project “Accelerate Great”

And the best part of this story is that in order to qualify you don’t have to do a thing with most nbn providers automatically upgrading your download and upload speeds free of charge.

First announced in September 2024 the NBN Co committed to  “accelerate the wholesale download and upload speeds on its three highest speed residential wholesale products and make them available to participating internet retailers from 14 September 2025” 

In a recent interview on the EFTM podcast, Jane McNamara, Consumer Spokesperson at nbn, said: “It’s about unleashing the power of the network. The NBN network can deliver these speeds. And we want to make sure that those early adopters or those homes and businesses that are out there that actually want to get these speeds now can do so“

As the date draws closer most providers have already released their plan to take advantage of the increased bandwidth the nbn is opening up.

What is happening?

For those on FTTP or HFC connections, or are eligible for these two connection types (accounting for over 9.8 million connections), the following upgrades will be introduced. The nbn isn’t charging telco’s any more so you shouldn’t expect any increase in pricing as a result of this change.

Residential Speed Upgrades:

• NBN 100 (Home Fast) on FTTP/HFC: Will be upgraded to 500/50 Mbps
• NBN 250 (Home Superfast) on FTTP/HFC: Will be upgraded to 750/50 Mbps.
• NBN 1000 (Home Ultrafast) on FTTP/HFC: Will be upgraded to 1000/100 Mbps.
• New 2000/200 Mbps (Hyperfast) tier on FTTP: Will be available for the first time.
• New 2000/100 Mbps (Hyperfast) tier on HFC: Will be available for the first time.

So is everyone the same? Is everyone passing on the speed upgrades and is everyone offering it free?

We investigated to find out but first who are these providers and how big are they?

The big boys

According to the nbn Wholesale Market Indicators Report for 2025 there are over 100 nbn providers in Australia but the big 4 are Telstra, TPG Group, Optus and Vocus and they enjoy almost 80% market share

Not surprisingly Telstra comes in at number one. Then TPG group (which includes TPG, Vodafone, iiNet and Internode) is next, Optus and then Vocus (Dodo, Primus)

It would be astonishing if all of the major internet service providers didn’t pass on the increased speeds at no added cost, but not all telcos have made official statements as to pricing or timing but we have done the hard work so you don’t have to.

1. Telstra – Telstra have told customers to “sit back and relax…if you’re already on FTTP or HFC and have a Premium, Ultimate or Ultrafast plan, your plan will automatically be upgraded to the higher wholesale speeds from September”
2. TPG Group – The TPG website promotes that new customers only will be eligible for the 500/40 plan but an online chat with them said “The NBN speed increase will happen on Sept 15, both new and existing customers will be able to take advantage of this” It is therefore recommended you check directly if you are a TPG nbn customer as these statements are in conflict.
3. Optus – Optus state on their website “Over the coming months, the nbn™ (National Broadband Network) is rolling out a series of speed changes for three of their fastest speed products, and Optus will automatically enable these upgrades across eligible plans at no extra cost to our customers”
4. Vocus – iPrimus have said that “nbn is increasing the speeds on speed tiers for FTTP and HFC customers so we are passing these increases on to our nbn customers“

The others

Dominated by increasingly popular nbn providers Aussie Broadband and Superloop, these next tier providers are proving to be viable alternative to the traditional players. Smaller player Exetel have even changed their entire nbn plan structure by essentially offering a single 500/50 mbs plan and made that plan available now.

1. Aussie Broadband – are keen to implement the upgrade stating that “Christmas is coming early this year! Well, at least we think so”
2. Superloop – Superloop state that “Whether you’re working from home, running a small business, streaming ultra-HD content, or simply browsing the web, the upcoming nbn speed upgrade is designed to give you faster, more reliable, and future-proof connectivity“
3. Tangerine – “We’re giving some of our high-speed internet plans a speed boost this September —because simple should still mean powerful”
4. Exetel – Exetel, owned by Superloop have taken a different approach. They have ditched their plan structures and gone for a one size fits all 500/50 option
5. Spintel – Just like Exetel, Spintel have jumped the gun and are offering the 500/50 plan right now for a competitive price

So who has the best deal?

To compare apples with apples we are excluding the honeymoon periods designed to suck you in for an initial period. Also, for simplicity we will concentrate on the most common speed tier, 100/20 mbs moving to 500/50 mbs. As the nbn are not increasing the cost to internet service providers there is no reason for the prices below to increase. Competition may in fact may put downward pressure on the monthly costs but at the time of publication the cost for the 100/20 mbs plan rising to 500/50 are below.

Current pricing on 100/20 plans

Parent Brand	Sub-Brand	Cost per month
Telstra		$113.00
TPG Group		$94.99
TPG Group	iiNet	$94.99
TPG Group	Vodafone	$89.00
Optus		$99.00
Vocus Group	Dodo	$92.99
Vocus Group	iPrimus	$97.00
Aussie Broadband		$95.00
Superloop		$99.00
Tangerine		$88.90
Tangerine	Buddy Telco (recently sold to Tangerine by Aussie Broadband)	$85.00

Already upgraded to 500/50 plans	Cost per month
Exetel	$80.00
Spintel	$84.95

Do I need to upgrade my hardware?

In short, probably not. The benefit of the FTTP connection is that in most cases you can connect your router directly to the nbn termination device (NTD) without the need for a modem. I say in most cases as some fringe internet service providers insist you retain a modem in the hardware chain but most don’t. A good test is to connect a laptop or other PC directly to the NTD via an ethernet cable. If you can surf the net then mothball that modem or in the case of modem/router 2-in-1 devices, at least disable the modem functionality and use only the wireless router capabilities.

Regardless of whether you are on FTTP or HFC you should also be aware that if you currently utilise cat5 cable through your home, it maxes out at 100 mbs so that extra speed is going to waste. Upgrade to cat6 if you feel the need for speed but of course it is likely none of your devices need the boost over 100mbs anyway. The most logical action is to upgrade to a mesh router wi-fi system to distribute this extra speed around your home, essentially creating a dome of wi-fi in every corner of your house or unit so you can enjoy the increase no matter where you are.

What’s next?

For those already on FTTP or HFC, do nothing. It is as easy as that. When the nbn ramp up the speed on September 14th you should soon enjoy the benefits. According to Jane McNamara that is the date the nbn flick the big switch to individual internet service providers who will then be responsible for activating their own internal systems to pass that speed on to customers. She said “if you haven’t heard from your internet provider, do reach out to them to make sure you’re eligible, but also how you can become eligible”

And the cool party trick is if you are currently paying for a 250 mbs plan or greater you may consider downgrading to the 100/20 mbs plan as that will increase to 500/50 mbs so it makes sense to downgrade to upgrade.

For those not on FTTP yet use the address checker on the nbn website to see if you qualify for the free upgrade to from FTTN to FTTP then enjoy the free speed upgrade in September. In fact almost 12,000 fibre upgrade applications came in a single week in August in anticipation of the speed jump.

Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch?