Customers should soon see more transparency around 5G home internet speeds

Anula Wiwatowska - Offsite Editorial Lead

Last updated 08 November 2022

5G home internet is rapidly becoming a potential NBN replacement for Australians, but the lack of transparency around typical evening speeds still leaves a question mark around its viability. This is set to change, thanks to a new Broadband Speed Claims Industry Guide issued by the ACCC last week.

Within this guide, the expectation is that “consumers should be provided with accurate information about typical busy period speeds that the average consumer on a broadband plan can expect to receive.” Satellite connections such as Sky Muster services are excluded from this guideline, but fixed wireless services including 5G home internet and mobile broadband are not.

Right now, NBN providers must list typical evening speeds customers can expect from fixed-line NBN plans. In addition, the ACCC puts out a quarterly report detailing the fastest NBN providers using the percentage of maximum speeds NBN connections are likely to achieve. Alternative fixed wireless plans (like 5G home internet) don’t currently have this level of reporting.

Both Telstra and Optus provide typical evening speeds on uncapped 5G plans, but the TPG group - which has the most 5G home wireless plans on the market - does not give any indication of speeds. This group, covering Vodafone, TPG, iiNet, and Internode also pioneered a range of 5G plans with comparable maximum speeds to NBN plans but with lower monthly costs.

50Mbps plans on NBN generally sit around the $70 per month mark without taking promotional discounts into account, while 100Mbps plans are around $85 to $90. 5G home wireless plans capped at 50Mbps on the other hand are $60 per month on average, while 100Mbps options are between $70 and $80. On paper, that evens out to around a $10 per month difference for the same speeds.

While lower prices for the same maximum speeds is an enticing offer for both consumers and providers, there currently is no tangible way to compare the real-life speeds of these options side-by-side.

For now, telcos are claiming speeds "up to" 50Mbps or 100Mbps as the primary means for relaying speed information. According to the ACCC, where accurate pre-sale speed information isn’t available (such as with fixed wireless services) the maximum attainable connection speed is a suitable measure. However, it also notes that telcos should provide an estimate of the typical busy period speed of the service directly to the customer within the first billing cycle.

If these typical evening speeds are already being noted to customers, it begs to reason that at some stage providers will have enough data to give a number from the get go. Providers are instructed to do sample testing at least once a quarter, and require at least 75 services to be connected to each retail plan, over a 14-day period to accrue the data. So while we may need to wait a bit longer for telcos to pull that data, typical evening speeds alongside 5G home internet plans are an eventuality.

We reached out for comment about when the TPG group would begin advertising typical evening speed information on 5G plans, but did not hear back before publication.

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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