Gigabit NBN plans are now available

Alex Choros - Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor

Last updated 29 May 2020

As of today, the NBN is getting a lot faster. Providers including Aussie Broadband, Superloop, and Launtel are now offering NBN 1000 plans, touting speeds of up to 1Gbps. That’s ten times as fast as an NBN 100 plan.

Aussie Broadband and Superloop's NBN 1000 plans are pretty similar, billed at $149 per month. Both providers are advising typical evening speeds of 250Mbps on their plans in the short term, but are planning on updating this after they get real world performance data.

Aussie Broadband's NBN 1000 plan is unlimited, but Superloop's has a 1TB allowance. After burning through 1TB, Superloop's NBN 1000 customers will have their download speeds capped to 100Mbps. Superloop says it plans review the 1TB limit after it has a better understanding how NBN 1000 customers affect the rest of their network.

Launtel's NBN 1000 plan is structured a little differently. Launtel bills plans on a per day basis, which means you can pause your service if you're not using it or if you want to swap speed tiers on a daily basis. An unlimited NBN 1000 plan on Launtel will set you back $4.60 per day, which works out to be $139.90 per month if you don't swap or pause your plan. Launtel is advertising typical evening speeds of 450Mbps for its NBN 1000 plan.

In terms of off peak connectivity, we probably wouldn't see any of these plans hitting 1Gbps consistency. Aussie Broadband says customers should typically see between 80% and 90% of the maximum plan speed, while Launtel is touting 950Mbps as the upper limit for its NBN 1000 plan.

NBN 1000 plans are only available to customers connecting to the NBN via FTTP, as well as 7% of HFC premises. This means only 18% of NBN-ready premises can get an NBN 1000 plan. HFC customers opting for an NBN 1000 plan will have their service configured for a download rate of 750Mbps, but these services will still have the potential to burst to speeds as fast as 990Mbps.

Aussie Broadband and Superloop are both also offering an identical NBN 250 plan. No matter which telco you go with, you'll pay $129 per month for unlimited data at typical evening speeds of 215Mbps. Launtel isn't offering an NBN 250 plan at this stage.

Once again, NBN 250 plans are only available to FTTP and HFC customers. While on 7% of HFC premises can get an NBN 1000 plan, 70% can get a NBN 250 plan. This means that roughly 32% of NBN-ready premises can sign-up for an NBN 250 plan.

NBN Co intends to upgrade the HFC portion of the network to ensure all customers can sign-up for an NBN 250 plan by June 2021.

At this stage, no other major providers have launched NBN 1000 or NBN 250 plans. We're expecting this to change over the coming months, however.

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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