It's been just over a month since the new high-speed NBN tiers launched in Australia, boosting home internet speeds to turbocharged heights. The star of those additions is the new mid-range tier, NBN 500, which has replaced NBN 100 for anyone with an FTTP or HFC connection. It effectively provides a 5x speed boost for free, taking users from 100Mbps to 500Mbps.
Despite the significant speed upgrade, most providers with NBN 500 plans are offering it for the same (or similar) monthly fees as their NBN 100 plan – and, in some cases, it’s even cheaper. That makes now a great time to shop around for a new provider, with many telcos serving up shiny introductory discounts for your first six months… although after that ends, the ongoing price can frankly get a little bit astronomical from some providers.
You could, of course, start shopping around for a better deal when you’re nearing that intro-discount deadline, but that process can often be overwhelming, time-consuming and, honestly, result in slight savings – a discount of AU$10 a month over six months only saves you AU$60 in total.
The more sensible move, in my mind, is to aim for a plan that’s great value on an ongoing basis, and that’s the key reason I’ve been recommending the NBN 500 plan from Exetel – a smaller, Australian-based telco that values, well, good value.
Exetel was, in fact, the very first provider to debut an NBN 500 plan back in July, six weeks before NBN Co’s official launch took place. In quite a radical move, Exetel also bid farewell to all its other plans and is just offering this one NBN 500 plan. Aptly named the One Plan (yes, really), it's been a winner in my books ever since.
As its name implies, Exetel’s made this plan simple and straightforward. There’s no introductory discount, but at just AU$80p/m, it’s the cheapest NBN 500 plan on an ongoing basis. Often, introductory offers are the factor that prompts me to recommend one NBN plan over another, but Exetel’s low ongoing rate is so good that it undercuts most NBN 100 plans and comes in at a total yearly cost of under AU$1,000. Per year, you'll only pay AU$960 in total – that’s AU$179.68 less than the average yearly price for an NBN 500 plan (which was AU$1,139.68, or around AU$95.97p/m, at the time of writing).
Coupled with some very useful extra perks (more on those below), if you're looking for a 500Mbps plan, Exetel's option is hard to beat.
Connection setup, availability and extra perks
Now, there are a few things you may want to confirm before heading to Exetel's website and checking your eligibility for the One Plan. The most important factor is understanding what NBN connection type you have at home.
To take full advantage of Exetel's plan, you'll need to have a fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connection type. If you don’t have one of these and are instead on fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibre to the curb (FTTC), the chances are good that you’ll be eligible for a free upgrade courtesy of NBN Co. You can get the upgrade through Exetel by simply ordering the Exetel One plan through the website, and the telco will organise the upgrade process for you.
It's also worth being aware that Exetel only supplies NBN services – you’ll need to BYO modem router. (If you’re keen to upgrade to a faster Wi-Fi device, Amazon’s eero 7 router for AU$299.99 can support internet plans up to 2.5Gbps and up to 120+ connected devices.)
If you've crossed those niggles off, then it's time to talk added bonuses. Exetel's plan comes with two notable features — Hibernate and Warp Speed — which make it easy to tweak your plan for either maximum savings or a speed boost.
Hibernate mode allows you to temporarily drop your speeds down to 12Mbps to save AU$1 per day off your monthly fee. There's no limit on how long you can hibernate for, so if you're away for a month, you could save up to AU$31. On the flip side, if you need a temporary speed boost, the Warp Speed tool increases the One Plan from 500Mbps* to a typical evening speed of 860Mbps for AU$1 per day. Both Warp Speed and Hibernate can be activated or deactivated via the Exetel app.
* Exetel does not yet have sufficient performance data to calculate the typical evening speed for this new plan. 500Mbps downloads and 50Mbps uploads are maximum speeds – actual speeds may vary.
