What modem is best for fast NBN? Do I need a Wi-Fi 7 router to go with plans from high-speed providers like Superloop?

Last September, NBN Co rolled out some of the biggest changes to consumer internet speeds that Australia has ever seen, quintupling the Home Fast II tier from 100Mbps to 500Mbps among other upgrades. Typified by Superloop’s speedy Family Max plan, this new NBN 500 tier was provided as a free automatic NBN upgrade for the many hundreds of thousands of households that were on NBN 100 plans, provided their home was connected to the NBN via either fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC).

The free upgrade has been great news for busy households that feel the need for speed, and if 500Mbps downloads isn’t fast enough, there’s now the option to step up to Superfast 750Mbps, Ultrafast 1,000Mbps and Hyperfast 2,000Mbps plans.

The first step to taking advantage of the upgraded speeds is to seek out a high-quality, well-regarded internet provider like Superloop, which recently won the trophy for Best NBN Provider: High Speed in TechRadar’s 2026 Australian PC Awards. A great NBN provider is only half the equation however, and unfortunately many homes aren't making the most of the extra available speed due to ageing modem-routers – something that can only be remedied by upgrading to a newer model supporting Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be).

TL;DR:

• Old modem-routers often can’t keep up with new broadband speeds, meaning many Australians are missing out on their free NBN speed boost
• Wi-Fi 7 and a 1Gbps or faster WAN port are essential router features for making the most of the recent NBN speed boosts, and for 2Gbps plans you’ll need a router with at least a 2.5Gbps WAN port
• Mesh Wi-Fi can help tackle blackspots to ensure the NBN speed upgrade is available right across your home
• Future‑ready, eero 7 and eero 7 Pro modem-routers are available for purchase on eligible Superloop plans, and support up to 2.5Gbps WAN, Wi-Fi 7 and mesh Wi‑Fi to help you keep pace with Superloop’s speedy NBN services

Does your modem-router impact your internet speeds?

Yes, an old modem-router can significantly slow down your internet speeds, especially when it comes to accessing faster NBN connections over Wi-Fi.

The first potential point of slowdown on older modem-routers is that many models only have a 100Mbps wide area network (WAN) port, which is the socket that connects via Ethernet cable to your NBN network termination device (NTD) and, from there, to the broader internet. This means that even if you sign up for a super-fast NBN service such as Superloop’s 1,000Mbps¹ Lightspeed plan, on your home network your internet access will be capped to 100Mbps — just 10% of the possible maximum speed — before it even makes it past your front door.

What’s more, even if your old modem-router is new enough to have a 1,000Mbps WAN port, the bigger bottleneck is likely to be slow Wi-Fi speeds.

Older modem-routers, particularly those still relying on Wi-Fi 4 or 5 technology, can struggle to handle speeds over 100Mbps. To unlock the full potential of the free NBN speed upgrades you ideally need to upgrade to a Wi-Fi 7 modem-router (some good examples are the optional eero 7 models offered by Superloop with its NBN plans) which can more adequately handle life in the fast lane.

What kind of modem-router do I need for a fast (500Mbps+) NBN plan?

In order to squeeze the most from a fast NBN plan of 500Mbps or more, you’ll need a modem-router with at least a 1Gbps WAN port to connect it to the internet, and ideally that modem-router should also offer Wi-Fi 7, which will then ensure that the high internet speeds coming into that WAN port can be maintained across your home wireless network.

A 1Gbps WAN port — that’s 1,000Mbps — ensures that your modem router can handle 500, 750 or 1,000Mbps internet speeds coming from your NBN box. Better yet, you may also want to consider a modem-router with a 2.5Gbps WAN port to offer extra future-proofing – it’s required if you one day wish to upgrade to a 2Gbps plan such as Superloop’s Hyperspeed offering (which has typical evening download speeds of 1,700Mbps¹) down the track.

Also keep in mind that you need at least a Cat 5e or Cat 6 Ethernet cable running between your modem-router’s WAN port and your NBN box to prevent bottlenecking. An old Cat 5 cable won’t cut it.

Of course, these days most networked devices around Australian homes are wireless, meaning that support for Wi-Fi 7 is essential to ensure your wireless network isn’t the weakest link.

What difference does Wi-Fi 7 make to your internet speeds?

Wi-Fi 7 can make a huge difference to your internet speeds, removing wireless bottlenecks so you can make the most of the NBN speed upgrade in the furthest corners of your home.

The new Wi-Fi 7 standard takes advantage of technological improvements like wider wireless channels, Multi-Link Operation (MLO) and 4K-QAM to increase throughput and efficiency while supporting more devices simultaneously.

All of this means Wi-Fi 7 routers can deliver speeds almost five times faster than Wi-Fi 6E, with theoretical peak speeds of up to a blistering 46Gbps.

When paired with a high-performance plan such as Superloop’s Family Max¹ (NBN 500) or Lightspeed (NBN 1000) offerings, the real world impact of upgrading to a Wi-Fi 7 router is wider Wi-Fi coverage across your home, with faster speeds, lower latency and better resilience when you push your wireless network to the limit.

While newer Wi-Fi 7-compatible laptops, phones and other user devices will benefit the most, your older wireless gear may still enjoy a performance upgrade thanks to improved traffic management and reduced congestion.

Do I need a mesh Wi-Fi system for a fast NBN plan?

Mesh Wi-Fi systems can tackle wireless blackspots to make sure you get the most from a high-speed NBN plan in every room in your home.

Rather than relying on a single wireless router, mesh Wi-Fi systems like the eero 7 and eero Pro 7 units offered by Superloop employ multiple base stations working in unison to provide blanket coverage across your home.

This mesh network acts like a single Wi-Fi network, allowing your personal devices to seamlessly switch between base stations as you move around your home, similar to how smartphones roam between mobile towers.

How does Superloop ensure you get great speeds from its high-speed NBN plans?

Unlike many Australian internet providers that just resell wholesale NBN connections, Superloop owns and operates its own national fibre backhaul network, and this network directly connects to all 121 NBN Points of Interconnect (POIs). POIs are the handover points where each household’s broadband connection moves from the local NBN wholesale network to their specific broadband provider and onto the wider internet.

By having its own networking infrastructure in every POI, Superloop customers’ traffic spends as little time on the wholesale network as possible, which can help reduce latency — something that’s especially critical for gaming and video calls — and also allows Superloop to have significantly more control and flexibility when it comes to network optimisation and congestion management.

Of course, optimising its wider network can only go so far, and needs to go hand-in-hand with speedy and reliable hardware in each customer’s home. When it comes to making sure every user’s local home network can keep up with its internet connection, Superloop optionally offers either an eero 7 or eero 7 Pro router to any customer signing up for a new plan or when ordering a fibre upgrade. Both router models support 2.5Gbps WAN, Wi-Fi 7 and can be expanded with mesh extenders if desired, all of which help ensure you get consistently fast speeds across your whole home.