How Do Optus’ New NBN 250 and NBN 1000 Speeds Stack Up?

How Do Optus’ New NBN 250 and NBN 1000 Speeds Stack Up?
Contributor: Alex Choros
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Optus has increased speeds on its NBN 250 and NBN 1000 plans for the first time since it launched the speed tiers back in August 2020. The telco now reports typical evening speeds of 240Mbps on its NBN 250 plan, and 300Mbps on its NBN 1000 plan. These are up from 215Mbps and 300Mbps, respectively.

Here are Optus’ plans faster than NBN 100:

Optus NBN 250 plans start at $109 per month for your first six months and $119 per month thereafter. The plans are contract-free, but you’ll need to pay a modem fee if you leave in your first 36 months. This is equivalent to $7 for each month left in your three-year term.

For an extra $10 per month, you can upgrade to a Family plan which also gets you a Wi-Fi extender. This increases your modem fee to $13 for each month left in your term if you decide to leave in your first three years, however.

If you’re looking at NBN 1000 plans, Optus bills $139 per month for your first six months and $149 per month thereafter. Opting for a Family plan adds a further $10 per month to your bill. These plans attract the same modem fees as Optus’ NBN 250 range.

Optus’ speed upgrade puts it at the top-end of telcos for NBN 250 plans:

Telstra and Aussie Broadband are the only two major providers reporting faster evening speeds on NBN 250 plans. Telstra reports typical evening speeds of 250Mbps, while Aussie is a hair faster than Optus with 243Mbps.

Both are a bit more expensive, however. Telstra will charge you $130 per month for your first six months, and $140 per month thereafter. Aussie Broadband bills $129 per month.

As with Optus, Superloop and Moose Mobile both also report typical evenings of 240Mbps on NBN 250 plans. In both cases, pricing is pretty similar. Superloop will charge $99.95 for your first six months, and $119.95 per month thereafter. Moose is asking for $108.80 for your first six months, and $118.80 per month thereafter.

The speed upgrade doesn’t do as much for Optus in the NBN 1000 space, however.

Telstra is the fastest out of the bunch, reporting typical evening speeds of 700Mbps. This will however set you back $170 per month for your first six months and $180 per month thereafter.

Aussie Broadband follows with typical evening speeds of 600Mbps, billed at $149 per month.

Superloop trails with typical evening speeds of 500Mbps, but this plan comes with a couple of catches. The first is that it has a hard cap of 500Mbps, so even though you should always be able to expect 500Mbps, you’ll never exceed it. Secondly, it has a 3TB allowance. If you manage to go through that, you’ll be limited to speeds of 100Mbps. This plan will set you back $119.95 per month for your first six months and $139.95 per month thereafter.

MyRepublic reports typical evening speeds of 350Mbps, and has one of the most affordable NBN 1000 plans around. You’ll pay $99 per month for your first six months and $109 per month thereafter. That’s even cheaper than a lot of NBN 250 plans.

Of course, Optus’ 300Mbps is still a step up from most other NBN 1000 plans, where providers commonly report typical evening speeds between 200 and 250Mbps.

While NBN 250 and NBN 1000 plans are still limited to FTTP and HFC addresses, essentially everyone with that technology type should be able to get a super high speed plan if they want it. NBN 250 plans are available to all FTTP and HFC addresses, and NBN 1000 plans are available at all FTTP addresses and 95 per cent of HFC addresses.

Alex Choros is Managing Editor at WhistleOut, Australia’s phone and internet comparison website.


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