Only some Optus internet customers will get compensated for last week’s outage

Dylan Crismale - Digital Content Editor

Last updated 13 November 2023

Optus today revealed that some of its NBN and home wireless plan customers will be compensated with faster speeds following the large-scale network outage last week.

Customers on an Optus NBN 250, NBN 1000, or uncapped 5G home internet plan you won't see any benefit, however.

All other Optus NBN internet customers will be able to activate an "Internet Turbocharge" for free.

Turbocharge increases your NBN speed to the maximum speed available at your address for 24 hours (up to NBN 250). For example, customers on an NBN 25 plan would be able to access up to NBN 250 speeds for a day.

This is subject to the NBN connection type at your premises. To get NBN 250 speeds at your address you need to have a HFC or FTTP connection.

Optus' internet booster is usually priced at $5 per 24 hours so it comes in at $155 for the month if you want to attach a value to it. You'll need to activate via the My Optus app each day to access the benefit.

On the 4G and 5G home internet front, Optus will be taking a similar approach although the rewards will apply automatically. 5G home wireless customers will get uncapped 5G speeds at no extra cost. Optus' uncapped 5G home wireless plan is normally valued at $99 per month without any discounts.

4G home wireless customers will have access to maximum download speeds of up to 35Mbps, up from the usual 25Mbps.

The actual speeds you will achieve with these measures applied are still subject to vary due to things like congestion, modem type and distance from the router.

All of these rewards will be available from December 1 and last the whole month so you'll need to wait a while to take advantage of them.

Optus offering extra data for mobile plan customers

Optus' mobile customers may be able to claim at least 200GB of data or endless data weekends.

Business customers can make a formal complaint

During the outage, many businesses were unable to operate due to a lack of internet service.

Optus is encouraging business customers with concerns to contact their Optus Account Manager or the Optus Business Centre.

Other customers can message support via the My Optus app or call Optus Business Care on 133 343.

You can make a formal complaint by filling out the form on the Optus website.

Dylan Crismale

Digital Content Editor

Dylan Crismale is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut, has been writing for almost a decade across a variety of Australian publications. He previously worked as a writer at Finder covering energy, internet and mobile plans. Dylan is passionate about finding the best deals to save people money and educating people about tech. When he's not sat at his desk Dylan loves working out, bingeing TV and hanging out with friends.

Read full bio