Without much fanfare, Leaptel is the latest internet provider to join the NBN 500 club early, selling faster speeds at a lower price ahead of the official NBN speed upgrade in September.
As listed on the telco’s website, Leaptel now sells a ‘Fast’ NBN tier, including 500Mbps download speeds and 42Mbps upload speeds during evenings. For the first 12 months, the new plan costs $79.95 per month, then $92.95 per month afterwards.
That discounted rate is more or less on par with the current cheapest NBN 500 plans, which include other early bird telcos like Tangerine, SpinTel, and Exetel. However, Leaptel’s full price is a bit pricier than competing telcos so far, with most plans costing less than $90 per month.
But for people previously on 100Mbps plans, the five-times speed upgrade isn’t too shabby. The speed increase comes courtesy of NBN Co raising its wholesale speeds at no extra cost.
However, the kicker is that benefitting from the resulting faster internet requires either a Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) or Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) connection. That’s why Leaptel sells its NBN 100 plan at the same price as NBN 500; it’s the maximum speed available to homes with Fibre to the Node (FTTN) or Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) technology.
The good news is that nearly four million Australian premises are eligible for an FTTP upgrade. In most cases, it’s free, but requires signing up for an NBN 100 plan or above, which might cost more than what some are willing to pay.
Based on the recent trend of Australians moving away from NBN 50 plans to faster tiers, the promise of speedier internet might be incentive enough to make the switch. And if you’re considering a move, it’s worth comparing the cheapest NBN plans.
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