When the concept of a national broadband network (NBN) was first floated in 2009, it was meant to deliver super-fast internet to every Australian premise directly. Unfortunately, the reality has been quite different, with hundreds of thousands of households unconnected or tethered to inferior technologies.
Another notable discrepancy is price. It turns out that not all NBN customers are created equal, with some regions paying more for comparable services. We compare how much regional and metro areas pay in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the ACT.
The following plans are all for Tier 5 NBN which is the fastest tier currently available. (It grants service providers with wholesale access speeds of 100 Mbps download and 40 Mbps upload over NBN fibre.)
As is plainly evident, the ten cheapest plans deviate substantially both in terms of monthly pricing and data allowances. Metro customers also have a larger choice of internet service providers, which helps to explain the price discrepancy.
For example, in regional NSW, unlimited Tier 5 NBN plans can cost as much as $140 per month, whereas the most expensive metro plan is $99.99. In Victoria, a 10GB plan can cost up to $79.95 for regional customers while their metro counterparts pay $64.90.
With that said, we can’t vouch for customer service quality. It’s entirely possible that many of these cheap metro offerings aren’t actually worth the money. Our advice is to do plenty of research before signing onto an NBN contract — no matter where you live.
Here’s the full table of NBN plans for NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, NT, Tasmania and the ACT. See something you like? You can click on the individual plans to learn more about them and/or sign up.
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In NSW: Metro
Ten Cheapest NBN Plans In NSW: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Victoria: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Victoria: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Queensland: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Queensland: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In The ACT: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In The ACT: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In South Australia: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In South Australia: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Western Australia: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Western Australia: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans On The Northern Territory: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In The Northern Territory: Regional
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Tasmania: Metro
10 Cheapest NBN Plans In Tasmania: Regional
See also: Planhacker: Which NBN Tier Provides The Best Value? | Do Australians Even Care About FTTP Vs FTTN
A 10GB Tier 5 plan?
Seriously, whats the bloody point?
I scrolled down here to write exactly the same thing. When we upgraded to Tier 5 I tried to stick within 100 GB but with all the HD Netflix we're using we soon shifted to an unlimited downloads plan.
So, having 121 points of interconnect are forcing cheaper ISPs to cherry pick which nodes they pay to connect to. This is the very reason the original plan was far better for competition than the current plan.
The tables are a lie. Its pretty damn misleading to say the cheapest bundle optus can do for regional is a package that includes unlimited international (yes international) calls, as well as fetch tv +mighty stb + entertainment pack. None of that is required and was not included in any of the other packages listed by other isps. This article is not comparing apples with apples.
What about the crap satellite plans have you even looked?
This disparity and the higher than necessary costs of all connections are directly attributable to the November 2010 cave-in to four longhaul fibre owners by the ACCC (against the interests of both Consumers and Competition). The optimal engineering design was for 14 Points of Interconnection, two redundant locations per capital city, with NBNCo responsible for building or leasing longhaul fibre trunks to reach regional fibre service areas, including scope for redundancy and multiple paths, all within its wholesale network management.
To deliver to all of Australia under the original design, a small provider needed to reach 14 POIs. To service a single state, it only needed two. Great for competition and containing total costs to be recovered from customers. Now they must lease links to 121 localities for Australia-wide service delivery, and as many as thirty for a single large state!
Malcolm Turnbull and Telstra have undermined the business model from day one, because its suits them to do so. Tuenbull to discredit Labor (which has badly backfired), and Telstra to maximise market share, perfectly valid for a corporation, but bad for customers.
We need the ACCC to transition the NBN back to its original design, for network resilience and uniformity, global cost savings, and optimal customer benefit.
How can you compare a plan for $99 without contract length to a 24 month contract total running $2400?
I just got back from rural Viet Nam where I stayed at my father-in-laws shrimp farm. south east of Ho Chi Minha place called Go Cong. My wife put the internet on for me so I could keep in touch with my friends in Australia and the outside world.
Point being, Unlimited download/upload, fiber optic connection, $10 per month on a six month plan, down loading at tier 1 speed and the fiber connected straight into the modem simple. None of this outside connection box attached to the house then the internal connection box connected to the modem and a battery box (sometimes optional) all sucking power. How ripped off are we.
How accurate is that comparison site used by the author in representing all ISPs? We're in regional Victoria with AussieBroadband on a 50/25 wireless NBN plan and 500GB of quota (download&upload), and we pay just $70 per month. Twice they've upped the quota (from 250 to 300 to 500GB) without charging extra. They're also contract free.
I'm guessing that the comparison site only includes ISPs who have paid to participate, so yeah, poorly researched article.
i moved to NZ for work nearly 3 years ago, reversing the trend. I have fibre into my apartment loungeroom in Auckland and i have gigabit/500Mb/s internet and loving it!
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5685874048
The entire architecture (121 POI) is a cave in to the few large ISP's to ensure small players can't get a foothold in the market. Into the bargain, every player is now beholden to majority of these same ISP's who just happen to own all the fibre capable of reaching the POI's.
NBN should have gone with the original small number of POI's and put them in huge datacenters where space could also be leased to people wanting to install systems.
The entire project has been run by telco people with a telco mindset rather than an IT mindset. It reminds me of when cable TV was introduced - Optus and Telstra raced down the same streets building redundant cable because they thought people would care about which cable they were connected to rather than the content on the cable. Same companies, same people, different decade.