Is gigabit NBN overpriced? I did the math to try and figure out if NBN 750 is better bang-for-buck | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Details

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

Is gigabit NBN overpriced? I did the math to try and figure out if NBN 750 is better bang-for-buck

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

As the resident NBN and home-internet expert for Tech Radar Australia, I spend much of my time looking out for the best internet deals, and there are almost invariably a number of compelling options at every different speed tier — and these can be a great way to sense-check if you’re overpaying for your current NBN service.

With almost all of the best NBN 500 plans promising to deliver their maximum 500 Mbps speeds even during the peak evening period, it’s a tier where direct price comparisons make sense. However, things get a bit wobblier when you’re shopping for faster speeds, such as NBN 750 and NBN 1000.

Most plans on these tiers make more conservative promises when it comes to typical evening speed — for example, rather than the 1,000 Mbps you might expect from NBN 1000, on these gigabit plans, most providers only promise evening speeds in the 820-860 Mbps range. With that TES figure closer to 750 Mbps than 1,000 Mbps, it prompted me to ask a simple question: Is NBN 1000 actually worth it, or should you save yourself some moolah every month and opt for NBN 750 instead?

First, I calculated the current average monthly cost of NBN 750 and NBN 1000 plans, alongside the average TES advertised by the providers I monitor. After crunching the numbers on NBN 750 plans from 14 providers and NBN 1000 plans from 20, the final results were:

As expected, the results show that NBN 1000 plans do not, on average, get as close to their nominal 1,000 Mbps tier speed as NBN 750 plans get to 750 Mbps. The gigabit gap was quite substantial, falling 164.6 Mbps shy of the tier’s nominal 1,000 Mbps tier, compared to a shortfall of just 19.8 Mbps for NBN 750.

With the average monthly cost less than AU

10 difference between the two tiers — specifically AU

8.97, or 8.5% — the question then became whether the NBN 1000’s typical evening speeds are worth it from a value perspective. For that, we of course needed to do some more maths:

With NBN 1000 plans falling far short of 1,000 Mbps in their typical evening speed promises (averaging just 83.5%), intuitively they seemed like they’d come out second fiddle to NBN 750. Surprisingly, however, NBN 1000 is slightly ahead when comparing cost per megabit for typical evening speeds: 13.8 cents for NBN 1000 versus 14.5 cents for NBN 750. There are a couple of NBN 750 plans that come in below that average at 13 cents per megabit — Kogan Internet and Spintel — which I've listed below.

In other words, NBN 1000 might cost more in absolute terms, but it does offer slightly better value per advertised megabit. If you need some recommendations as to which NBN 1000 plans are worth checking out, look no further than Dodo and Superloop. The cost per megabit on these two works out to be 13 cents, placing them among the cheapest for the tier.

Spintel Home Turbo Fast | 750 Mbps | AU

69p/m (first 6 months, then AU

94.95p/m)

If it's the most affordable NBN 750 plan you seek, you simply can't ignore this option from Spintel. It has gone slightly lower in price before, yet it continues to be the cheapest I can currently find in the first year. Spintel is also only one of five providers on this tier to claim maximum plan speeds.

• AU

69 total minimum cost • AU

983.70 first year cost • AU$1,139.40 ongoing yearly cost

Kogan Internet Platinum | 740 Mbps TES | AU

84.90p/m (first 12 months, then AU

94.90p/m)

The introductory cost of this Kogan Internet plan is evidently much higher than Spintel's, but the telco is currently offering a 12-month discount that results in this being the second-cheapest in the first year. Plus, with the ongoing cost being practically the same as Spintel's, you'll be paying the same 13 cents per megabit.

• AU

84.90 total minimum cost • AU

1,018.80 first year cost • AU$1,138.80 ongoing yearly cost

Superloop | 860 Mbps TES | AU

84p/m (first 6 months, then AU

114p/m)

Superloop may have increased the price of this gigabit plan as of July 1, but it continues to represent great value. Not only is the TES claim among the highest for the tier, but the telco receives overwhelmingly positive reviews from customers.

• AU

84 minimum cost • AU

1,188 first year cost • AU$1,368 ongoing yearly cost

Dodo nbn 1000 | 850 Mbps TES | AU

77.99p/m (first 6 months, then AU

109.99p/m)

If you want to try NBN 1000 for as little money as possible, this plan from Dodo is tough to beat. You'll pay just AU$77.99p/m for the first six months, which represents the most affordable intro cost for this tier. What's more, with an 850 Mbps TES claim, you'll pay the same 13 cents per megabit as the Superloop plan above.

• AU

77.99 minimum cost • AU

1,127.88 first year cost • AU$1,319.88 ongoing yearly cost

The NBN 750 and 1000 plans don’t exist in a vacuum, however, and NBN Co has been pretty clear that it considers NBN 500 — introduced last September — to be the current sweet spot for most Australian households. So how does the golden child stack up, you ask? I’ve also made it no secret that I consider it the best option for most Australian households, but admittedly, that’s been without these recent calculations.

As we alluded to above, unlike NBN 750 and 1000 plans, most providers do advertise maximum plan speeds for NBN 500, with an average typical evening speed of 499.3 Mbps across 22 providers — equivalent to 99.9% of its potential 500 Mbps maximum.

On a cost-per-megabit basis, however, things don’t look as pretty for my personal fave. With an average monthly price of AU$95.75, the average megabit cost works out to around 19.2 cents, making it substantially more expensive than both NBN 750 and NBN 1000.

With that being said, it still remains the cheapest option in outright monthly terms, with the average NBN 500 plan costing AU

95.75 — AU

10.23 less than NBN 750 and AU$19.20 less than NBN 1000.

As for my top recommendations for an NBN 500 plan, look no further.

This Exetel plan has been my favourite ever since it launched in July last year. It offers fuss-free billing, claims maximum plan speeds — the telco has even been found to overdeliver on speeds in ACCC reporting — and it comes with extra perks, giving you the to boost your speed even further for AU$1 a day. The cost per megabit is also the cheapest at 16 cents. It's simply the best.

Kogan Internet Gold Plus | 500 Mbps | AU

69.90p/m (first 12 months, then AU

85.90p/m)

If you want to pay as little as possible for an NBN 500 plan in the first year of service, then Kogan Internet's plan is the one for you, thanks to a generous 12-month discount. It also comes in at 17 cents per megabit, well under the current average. Plus, the telco receives generally favourable reviews from customers.

• AU

69.90 minimum cost • AU

838.80 first year cost • AU$1,030.80 ongoing yearly cost

So, where to go from here? What these numbers helpfully confirm is that if you do opt for a faster plan, you are getting good value from a purely cost-per-megabit metric — so if you were looking to justify jumping up to NBN 750 or NBN 1000, you can probably stop reading here.

These facts and figures can’t take into account all the subjective-but-important real-world factors that come into play when choosing an internet plan — they can’t, for example, help you determine how much speed your household actually needs.

While it’s now been proven that NBN 1000 plans offer the cheapest cost-per-megabit, that’s only really useful if you actually need gigabit speeds regularly. What you’re ultimately paying extra for, most of the time, is time — specifically, less time waiting for large files (like video games or OS updates) to download.

And with NBN Co recently claiming that average monthly data usage increased to 574 GB per premises — up 13% year-on-year — having a plan that will download all those gigs faster is going to become more and more essential.

For me personally, I’ve decided I can stand to wait a little longer on the one or two occasions a month when that extra speed would be noticeable. It’s hard to justify paying more if the extra megabits are going unused 95% or more of the time.

Max is a senior staff writer for Tech Radar who covers home entertainment and audio first, NBN second and virtually anything else that falls under the consumer electronics umbrella third. He's also a bit of an ecommerce fiend, particularly when it comes to finding the latest coupon codes for a variety of publications. He has written for Tech Radar's sister publication What Hi-Fi? as well as Pocket-lint, and he's also the editor of Australian Hi-Fi and Audio Esoterica magazines. Max also dabbled in the men's lifestyle publication space, but is now firmly rooted in his first passion of technology.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Google's been developing a new AI smartphone camera tool to measure body fat

Leaker claims Nintendo Switch 2 version of Diablo 4 will finally arrive two days after Blizz Con and include two expansions

Test your Jack Reacher knowledge with the hardest quiz on the internet

I'm a home appliances expert, and these are the air fryers I'd recommend for students

Alibaba brings frontier-scale AI compute to the public cloud in China

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Key Takeaways

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards
Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards