A lot has changed since we last posted this Exetel review. The Australian-owned internet service provider (ISP) — owned by Superloop — has carried out a complete overhaul of its NBN plan offerings. Previously, the telco offered plans from NBN 25 all the way up to NBN 1000. Now, however, it has just The One plan, offering 500Mbps download speeds.

Exetel has also dropped its business plans, along with various perks that came with select plans.

On paper, then, that could put Exetel at a disadvantage compared to the best NBN providers that offer a wider range of plan choices. However, as you'll learn from reading this Exetel review, it's very much a compelling option for most homes. This is because, while it only offers an NBN 500 plan, the vast majority of Australian homes either already can, or are eligible to, access this new speed tier.

And, despite overhauling its NBN plan lineup, thanks to a low-cost, fuss-free pricing structure, Exetel has maintained the value we've long known it for.

At surface level, Exetel — an award-winning provider — appears to be a great option for anyone looking to get connected to the internet, or to maximise savings when compared to their current NBN plan. Here at Tom’s Guide, we’ve even claimed the telco to be one of our favourites, as it constantly appears throughout our best NBN deals roundup. But now that we’ve dug a little deeper, is it all smoke and mirrors, or is Exetel a genuine contender to be your next NBN provider?

Exetel review: The One Plan

As you can see from the image above — and as mentioned earlier — Exetel has just one NBN plan on offer, appropriately called the One Plan. This is an NBN 500 plan, delivering up to 500Mbps download speeds throughout the day. Indeed, Exetel claims you can expect to achieve these fast speeds even during the busier evening hours of 7pm – 11pm, as signified by its typical evening speed claim.

Upload speeds can reach a theoretical maximum of 50Mbps, but as you can see from the image, Exetel says you can realistically expect to achieve 40Mbps typical evening speeds.

Exetel adds that for an extra AU$1 per day, you can boost your download speed to up to 1Gbps, should you want or need to extra speed when using the internet.

Speeds

As mentioned above, Exetel now offers just one NBN plan for customers. That makes talking about the speeds it provides pretty easy.

In short, this is an NBN 500 plan that claims to deliver a theoretical maximum download speed of 500Mbps. The NBN 500 plan, for those who are unaware, was introduced on September 14, 2025, as part of a wave of upgrades across the NBN network.

It replaces the NBN 100 tier for customers who connect to the fixed-line network via fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC). If you connect to the fixed-line network via another method, then you can't sign up for this plan.

However, while NBN Co has penned the September 14 date, Exetel unleashed its One Plan much, much earlier, and was effectively the first to market with a 500Mbps plan. That means it was live when the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission recorded data for its most recent Measuring Broadband Performance data report, which was published December 2025.

The good news is, Exetel was found to deliver 103.8% of advertised plan speeds across all hours of the day and 103.4% during the busy evening hours. In short, you can realistically expect to achieve speeds faster than 500Mbps if you sign up to the Exetel One plan.

Cost

Cost can be a big deciding factor when you're thinking about switching your NBN plan — it makes sense to want to get the best bang for your buck.

Exetel is one of a small handful of NBN providers to not offer an introductory discount on its NBN plan, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, at just AU$80p/m, the Exetel One Plan is actually quite affordable.

It is possible to spend less over the first 6 months of service, and you can view some of these in our guide to the best NBN 500 plans. However, even at AU$80p/m, the Exetel One Plan comes in well below the current average for this speed tier, which at the time of writing is just over AU$93p/m.

Plus, from year two, Exetel is the only ISP to charge less than AU$1,000 per year for its plan.

Exetel One | 500Mbps | AU$80p/m

Exetel's NBN 500 plan is exceptional value at just AU$80p/m for as long as you remain connected. It promises maximum download speeds and has been found to actually overdeliver on those claims. There are extra perks available too, which only adds to Exetel's value.
• AU$80 minimum cost
• AU$960 yearly cost

View Deal

Reliability

It’s not just how much you can expect to pay that should convince you to sign with (or steer you away from) an NBN provider. It’s also good to know how reliable a service you can expect. After all, there’s no point signing up with a new ISP, only for you to then experience frequent dropouts in service.

Fortunately the ACCC comes to our aid once again, as it publishes data relating to average daily outages lasting more than 30 seconds after testing over 40 white boxes across all NBN providers. Exetel ranked pretty highly, recording 45% of units having no outages, 49% having outages at most every other day, and only 2% of units recording outages at least once a day.

Data caps

Exetel’s One Plan comes with unlimited data as standard, so you never have to worry about data caps. Based on information gathered from WhistleOut, the vast majority of NBN providers offer unlimited data on the majority of their plans. Where you’re likely to find data cap limits is on satellite and wireless internet plans, or Aussie Broadband, which gives you the ability to customise your own plan depending on your needs and budget.

Gaming

Only a few telcos in Australia advertise themselves as being a perfect match for online gamers, so it’s not a huge deal to find that Exetel is among the group that doesn’t advertise dedicated NBN plans for gamers. But how does Exetel fare with the online gaming community?

The ACCC also publishes data regarding latency and in its latest report, includes data collected from December 2025. The regulator found that Exetel’s NBN service was in fact the best where latency is concerned, recording 6.9ms across all hours and 7ms during the busy evening hours — both figures represent major drops of around 2ms since we last visited this review.

It’s tricky to determine a realistic real-world opinion of how Exetel fares for online gaming today, because the majority of customer reviews on sites such as Whirlpool are several years old. We’d say it’s fair to argue that the state of the infrastructure Exetel uses now will be much improved, with latency likely improving as a result. So, for this section, we have to rely on the ACCC data, and with Exetel sitting in top position, we reckon it should be a good ISP for you to game on.

Extra features

Understanding that it might not have quite the same pull or brand awareness as some of the bigger players on the NBN scene in Australia, Exetel has a few perks to entice customers.

These include the ability to boost your download speed to up to 1Gbps for just AU$1 per day, and the ability to downgrade your plan to a much slower 12Mbps and save AU$1 per day, which could be ideal if you know you're going to be away from home for an extended period of time.

Cancellation and hidden costs

One area that we have noticed has caused some customers aggravation is how cancellations are dealt with. Exetel, like many other NBN providers, advertises it works on a no lock-in contract model, meaning you’re free to cancel at any time and switch NBN provider.

What we don’t think is so clearly highlighted is that, while you're free to cancel at any time, you'll be charged for the remainder of your billing period. If there comes a time when you think you'll want to cancel your Exetel NBN service, then make sure to do so the day before your next billing payment.

The official statement reads: "You can cancel your Exetel nbn Home Broadband Service at any time though you will be charged for the rest of your billing cycle. Hibernate and Warp speed fees will be calculated and a final invoice will be provided."

Full information and terms and conditions for the Exetel one plan can be found in the Critical Information Summary.

Reputation

On the whole, we’re happy with the service Exetel puts forward, on paper at least. But what do actual customers have to say? The quick answer is, it’s on the whole very positive. At the time of publishing, Exetel holds a 4.2-star rating on Product Review, with 70% of reviews being positive.

It's a similar story on Trust Pilot, where Exetel has a 4.5-star rating from 10,000+ reviews. This backs up our belief that Exetel is an excellent provider for most people.

Verdict

For us, Exetel comes across as a great-value NBN provider. According to official data provided by the ACCC, download speeds should be consistent with those advertised, and in some cases you may even see an increase.

We also appreciate Exetel's fuss-free billing structure and low monthly fee compared to other ISPs. It's good to know there are extra perks available too, as this is becoming a rarity among other NBN providers.

While we have found negative customer reviews online, we've also found a raft of positive ones to counteract them, so feel they shouldn't necessarily influence your decision as to whether to sign up for an Exetel NBN plan.