It’s official: Australians want faster internet. More people are signing up for NBN 100 plans and above – with good reason. We’re downloading more than ever, and need fast internet for remote working, streaming 4K videos, and online gaming.
NBN 100 plans hit a sweet spot of affordability and speed, capable of sustaining a busy household filled with internet-connected gadgets. While NBN 50 plans still have a place, they’re now more expensive, while faster plans only cost an extra few dollars per month.
Due to the contract-free nature of most internet service providers (ISPs), it’s easy to swap to a plan that better suits your needs. Plus, most ISPs offer decent discounts for the first six months. After which you can reassess and find a better deal, leaving more money in your pocket.
Here are the cheapest NBN 100 plans with unlimited data currently available from some of Australia’s best telcos. You can also compare the cheapest NBN plans overall to find the best internet deal across all speed tiers.
Contents
- Cheapest NBN 100 plans
- What’s the best NBN 100 plan?
- Why choose NBN 100?
- Alternatives to NBN 100 plans
Cheapest NBN 100 plans
Dodo has multiple strong deals live until the end of the month, including the cheapest NBN 100 plan. At only $64 a month for the first six months, it’s a great deal. After the sale, it then costs $85 each month, on par with most full-price plans.
Exetel, Spintel, Superloop, and Tangerine also offer good prices on NBN 100 plans at less than $70 when on sale. While most ISPs hover around $85 per month, Kogan’s plan costs $78.90, although its 90Mbps typical evening speeds are slower than most.
Telcos with the biggest market share tend not to offer many internet deals, but Optus has proven the exception this month. Its NBN 100 plan is $75 for the first six months, down from $99. Be aware that the Optus plan is on a contract, leaving you to foot the remaining bill if you choose to cancel.
What’s the best NBN 100 plan?
Due to multiple variables, it’s tricky to definitively label just one of the NBN 100 plans the best. Speed, reliability, and customer service all play a part, so there’s a fair bit to consider.
One good resource to refer to is the Australian Competition and Consumer Competition (ACCC) Measuring Broadband Australia report. Each quarter, the ACCC publishes independent data tracking ISP performance, including average speeds during busy periods, and outage frequency.
When browsing NBN plans, you’ll frequently encounter the phrase “typical evening speeds”. This refers to the time between 7pm and 11pm each night, which tends to see peak internet traffic. It’s one thing to reach peak speeds during the day, and another to achieve them when there’s more congestion.
Across NBN 100 plans, there’s not much variation in typical evening speeds. That being said, ISPs like Dodo and Swoop advertise 100Mbps download speeds during peak hours, while Kogan only advertises 90Mbps. According to ACCC data, Dodo averaged 98.7% of its advertised download speeds during busy hours in September 2023
Another factor to consider is trustworthiness. Aussie Broadband, while often pricier than competing ISPs, has won multiple awards for the quality of its service, including the most trusted telco at the Roy Morgan Trusted Brand Awards.
To reiterate the point about lock-in contracts: it’s easier than ever to try one telco and then swap if they don’t deliver what you need. Most ISPs don’t require a long-term commitment, which is great for competition.
Why choose NBN 100?
Households include a growing number of internet-connected devices. To cope with the increasing demand on bandwidth, you’ll want an internet plan capable of handling multiple connections.
NBN 100 plans provide up to 100Mbps (megabits per second) download speeds, which is the equivalent of downloading 12.5 megabytes each second. In other words, a 1GB file would take less than 1.5 minutes to download. It’s good for multi-user households that want to stream multiple 4K videos, download large files, and play online games at the same time.
What about upload speeds?
Most NBN 100 plans tend to also include 20Mbps upload speeds, which is what 100/20 refers to. Upload speeds affect how quickly you can save files to cloud services like OneDrive or Google Drive, and stream or upload content on social media platforms. 20Mbps is fine for most people, although remote workers or content creators who regularly send large files might want faster speeds.
At an extra cost, some ISPs offer NBN 100 plans with 40Mbps upload speeds, often called 100/40 plans. This is better suited to creative professionals needing to regularly send images and video files to clients, or anyone who sends large volumes of files at any given time. YouTubers and content creators also benefit from faster upload speeds because videos can run well into the gigabytes of storage size.
Here are some of the current offers for NBN 100/40 plans with higher upload speeds:
Alternatives to NBN 100 plans
If you’re not sure that an NBN 100 plan suits your needs, there are plenty of other options. An NBN 50 plan might be all you need if you live in a single or two-person household. Meanwhile, NBN 250 and NBN 1000 might be better suited to gaming enthusiasts, as they can download large game files in a fraction of the time.
Here are some of the current deals on NBN 50 plans:
If you’ve got access to Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), you can also benefit from these NBN 250 deals:
Alternatively, these deals on NBN 1000 plans serve the most internet-hungry households:
There are also fixed wireless and satellite internet options depending on what infrastructure is available in your area. Alternatively, you can use the data included with many of the cheapest SIM plans to streamline your phone and internet bill.
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