NBN vs 5G Home Internet - Compare Plans and Speed Tiers

What is the best internet in Australia?

Are you moving to a new house? How can you get the best internet connection? An internet provider may offer NBN. However, faster technologies for the same price, such as wireless 4G or 5G, might be available at your location.

Here is a comparison of the internet technologies in Australia.

In September 2025, NBN accelerated wholesale speeds on FTTP and HFC connections. The former 100/20 tier became 500/50, the 250/25 became 750/50, the 1000/50 became 1000/100, and a new 2000Mbs Hyperfast tier was introduced. Speeds on FTTN connections remain limited by the copper line distance.

Actual internet speed varies depending on your location, the quality of the wiring and the WiFi setup in the house.

NBN comparison

The table below shows the most and least expensive selection of NBN providers. Prices and speeds are estimates and may vary depending on specials. Several dozen other providers offer deals that fall within similar price ranges.

The NBN speed tiers in the table: Basic: Speeds capped to 50Mbs or below.Standard: Speeds from 100 to 500Mbs depending on connection type.Ultrafast: Speeds from 1000 to 2000Mbs on FTTP and HFC.

Telstra has the highest prices among the NBN providers in Australia, while many others offers some of the lowest rates. However, service quality can differ based on location and setup. Before choosing a provider, please do your research and, at the very least, verify that their support phone number is attended.

What is the best internet in my area?

It depends on availability at your address. If 5G is strong in your location, it often gives the best speed for the price and can be set up same day. If you need a fixed IP or a stable VPN for work or security systems, NBN is typically required. Since September 2025, NBN Ultrafast offers speeds up to 1000 Mbps and the new Hyperfast tier reaches 2000 Mbps on FTTP and HFC connections.

You may also find cheap NBN plans for seniors from $40, with a capped speed of only 25Mbs or less, sufficient for essential internet and TV.

Typical NBN speed is around 50Mbs on a standard plan. However, when opting for higher speed tiers, ISPs cannot guarantee the exact speed until after installation due to variations at the specific location. You can check your address on the internet provider's website or ask your neighbours. Nevertheless, actual connection speeds can differ from expectations.

NBN

Check the address on the NBN website. If NBN is available, you can choose an NBN provider to your liking.

What is the best NBN internet provider in my area?

Most NBN providers don't own the physical network. They mainly differ in marketing, customer management, support quality, and shared bandwidth, which affects peak-time speed.

Is 5G better than NBN?

Whether using 4G or 5G, it utilizes the same technology as your mobile phone with the same SIM card. The only difference is the wireless modem, usually combined with the router. 5G home internet can deliver speeds comparable to NBN Ultrafast near a tower, often at a lower price. For most households, 5G is a strong alternative to NBN, though NBN is generally more reliable and better for fixed IPs or VPN use.

One downside of wireless is the lag and stability in remote areas. Depending on your proximity to the network tower, the lag can exceed 30ms compared to 5ms over fixed NBN. Lag and jitter can introduce noticeable delays and inconsistencies while browsing the internet despite downloading speeds exceeding 100Mbps. However, this is generally fine in urban areas where mobile towers are typically nearby. 5G connection speed near the tower can be up to 1000Mbs with a ping of 5ms.

How can I check what 4 - 5G speed I can get in my location?

Do a speed test on your mobile phone. Because the 4G - 5G internet uses the same technology, it will be at least as fast as the mobile phone at the exact location, assuming the 4G internet and mobile phone provider are the same.

NBN changed to Optus 4G at Avalon

Is NBN the same as cable?

If your home was previously connected to Optus Foxtel TV or the internet via coaxial cable, that cable may be used for NBN HFC Hybrid Fibre Coaxial. It has higher speeds and better lag than traditional cable internet and is slightly better than NBN over copper phone lines.

Whether NBN runs over cable or phone lines is planned upfront, but sometimes you may have a choice. You can check the type of NBN connection available at your address on your ISP's website.

Apart from NBN over coaxial cable, there are two other ways NBN can be delivered to your home: FTTN, which uses existing copper phone lines, and FTTP, which requires the installation of new fibre cables. The installation method depends on what is available at your address. For basic plans, the end user generally won't notice a difference between these technologies. For speeds above 100 Mbps, FTTP or HFC is required. The Australian Government announced a $4 billion plan to overbuild 95% of FTTN premises with fibre by 2030, enabling the full range of NBN speed tiers.

Problems with coaxial cables

Cables are not always connected to the internet provider. Occasionally, builders incorporate coax cables in the house design, but the internet provider won't connect a new home to the network for a reasonable price. Coax cables are also used for Foxtel satellite dishes or free-to-air TV antennas unrelated to the internet.

ADSL

ADSL has been largely phased out as the NBN rollout is now complete across Australia. The copper phone line technology could only deliver speeds up to about 24Mbs, with most connections closer to 10Mbs. NBN is many times faster than ADSL on the same line. A few legacy ADSL services may still be active in some locations, but new ADSL connections are no longer available.

How do I check what ADSL speed can I get at my location?

ADSL internet speed hugely depends on proximity from the phone exchange. You can google 'DSLAM map' to see the distance from the exchange to your house and maximum ADSL speed. The best map is provided by TPG. ADSL from other providers will give the same speed because lines and phone exchanges (where nodes are) are the same for all internet providers.

Internet connection quality parameters

Download speed

Internet download speed is vital for fast file downloads to your device but doesn't solely determine website loading speed. Other factors also influence how quickly websites load.

Upload speed

The upload speed tells how fast you upload information to the internet. Good upload speed is needed when you upload large files such as PDFs to the cloud or videos to YouTube. Browsing web pages, such as Facebook or using mobile applications, depends on upload, albeit not as much as a download. Unfortunately, internet providers do not advertise upload speed. The hardware or network protocols often limit Upload speed. For example, cable internet was limited by 3Mbs uploads even though the download speed may be higher than 100Mbs. That is why uploading video to YouTube from a mobile phone on 4G could be ten times faster than on WiFi.

Network latency

Latency is the time it takes for a resource to load, such as a webpage or separate elements, pictures and other files. This delay is measured in milliseconds (ms). Latency is influenced by several factors, including the physical distance between the sender and receiver, the quality and capacity of the network infrastructure, the number of network devices the data must pass through, and the processing time at each network device and computer.

The ping

A ping is a tool or command used to measure latency. When you run a ping command, your device sends a small packet of data (ICMP echo request) to a specific server or IP address. The server then responds with the same packet (ICMP echo reply). The time it takes for this round-trip communication to occur is known as the ping time.

Ping vs Latency

Ping measures the delay of a standard packet, while latency is a broader parameter requiring a definition of what is measured. The lesser the ping and latency, the better.

Tags:  WiFi