NBN explained
What NBN speed do you need: 100, 500, 1000 or 2000?
Most homes of one to four people are well served by the tier sold as NBN 100, which now runs much faster on fibre and HFC. The 1000 and 2000 tiers only pay off for big, busy households. Your connection type sets the ceiling: copper lines cannot take the faster tiers, and old WiFi or cabling can cap you again.
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“What speed should I get?” is a fair question with a surprising answer: most homes need less than they think, and the speed you pay for is not always the speed that reaches your devices. Two things decide what actually reaches your devices, the type of NBN line you have and the WiFi and cabling inside the house. If the line is the limit, the fibre upgrade is the only way past it, and once it is done we get the fibre upgrade cabled to where you use it.
What NBN speed do I need? The short answer
For most households of one to four people, the tier sold as NBN 100 is plenty, and on fibre to the premises and HFC it now runs at up to 500 Mbps. A light-use home of one or two people can get by on NBN 50 or even NBN 25. The NBN 1000 and NBN 2000 tiers pay off only for big, busy homes that move very large files, and only if the line, the router and the devices can keep up.
The reason is that everyday use is lighter than it feels. Netflix recommends 5 Mbps for a full HD stream and 15 Mbps for 4K, and Zoom asks for under 4 Mbps of upload for a full HD video call. What adds up is everyone at once, in the evening.
| Household | What it is doing | Download speed to aim for |
|---|---|---|
| One or two people | Browsing, email, streaming on one screen | About 25 Mbps |
| Three or four people | Streaming on a couple of screens, video calls, some gaming | About 50 Mbps |
| A busy home | Several streams, working from home, gaming, large downloads | 100 Mbps or more |
| A big home of heavy users | Several 4K streams at once, large game and file downloads, uploading video for work | 500 Mbps or more, on fibre or HFC |
To size it for your house, count the people and screens that are online at the same time at about 8 pm, not across the day. Then think about upload as well as download, because that is the number working from home leans on.
The NBN speed tiers since September 2025
Since 14 September 2025, a tier’s name is no longer its top speed on fibre to the premises and HFC. NBN lifted Home Fast (NBN 100) to up to 500 Mbps and Home Superfast (NBN 250) to up to 750 Mbps, doubled the upload on Home Ultrafast, and added Home Hyperfast at up to 2,000 Mbps. On the everyday tiers, the name is still the top download speed: an NBN 50 plan is up to 50 Mbps.
| Tier | Often sold as | Download, up to | Upload, up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Fast | NBN 100 | 500 Mbps | 50 Mbps |
| Home Superfast | NBN 250 | 750 Mbps | 50 Mbps |
| Home Ultrafast | NBN 1000 | About 1,000 Mbps | 100 Mbps |
| Home Hyperfast | NBN 2000 | 2,000 Mbps | 200 Mbps on fibre, 100 Mbps on HFC |
These are NBN’s wholesale speeds, the most the network delivers to your provider. What a plan gives you in the evening is lower, and providers name their plans their own way, so ask which tier a plan is on. NBN also says the faster tiers depend on capacity at each address, so not every fibre or HFC home can order every tier. Our NBN speed test page charts what changed, tier by tier.
Your type of NBN connection sets the ceiling
The type of NBN line into your home decides the fastest plan you can use, before anything else. NBN says its higher speed plans are only available on fibre to the premises and HFC. On fibre to the node, fibre to the curb and fibre to the building, the speed comes down a copper line, and the copper sets the limit.
| Connection | Faster tiers | What limits the speed |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre to the premises (FTTP) | Yes, up to the top tier | Usually the WiFi, the router or the cabling in the house |
| HFC | Yes, up to the top tier | The coax inside the house, old splitters, and how busy the street is |
| Fibre to the curb (FTTC) | No | The short copper run from the pit and the phone wiring in the house |
| Fibre to the building (FTTB) | No | The building's copper from the comms room to your unit, and the sockets in it |
| Fibre to the node (FTTN) | No | The length and condition of the copper back to the node cabinet in the street |
On the copper types, paying for a faster tier does not make the line faster. A line that only reaches half its plan where it enters the building will not reach more at your socket, whatever the plan says. Copper speed also drops when the wiring inside is wrong: extra phone sockets on the same line, called bridge taps, are a common reason a home on fibre to the curb or the building gets well under its plan. What a bridge tap is, and how it is fixed explains it.
The ACCC says providers should tell you about any limit to your maximum speed (opens in a new tab) when you sign up, so ask before you pay for a faster tier on a copper line. To get past the copper, the fibre upgrade is the way. NBN’s full fibre address checker (opens in a new tab) says whether your home can have it; since 1 July 2026, a fibre to the curb home can upgrade on any speed plan, and on fibre to the node your provider can tell you which plans qualify. The fibre to the premises upgrade, step by step covers what happens on the day.
Your WiFi and devices can cap it again
The speed of your plan arrives at one box in one room. Everything after that box, the WiFi, the cables, the router and the device in your hand, can cut it down again, and on a fast fibre plan it usually does. NBN itself says equipment, set-up and the age of your devices affect the speed you get, and suggests checking whether your router is more than five years old.
- Plan: the plan
- Line: the line into the house
- Cable: the cable to the router
- Router: the router
- WiFi: the WiFi to the room
- Device: the device
Fibre, with old WiFi
Cap: The WiFi
The full plan reaches the router. The WiFi loses most of it on the way to the room. A mesh placed properly, or a cable to that room, is the fix, not a faster plan.
Fibre to the node
Cap: The line
The copper back to the node is the limit, so a faster plan changes nothing. Check whether your address can upgrade to fibre.
Fibre, cabled to the room
Cap: Nothing: you get your plan
With a good router and a cable or strong WiFi to the room, the speed you pay for is the speed you get. Compare it with the typical evening speed for your plan.
These are the caps we find most often in Sydney homes:
- An old network cable in the wall. Older Cat5 cable tops out at 100 Mbps. One caller had close to a gigabit with the router plugged in at the NBN box and a small fraction of that upstairs, over the older cable run between them. Cat5e and Cat6 carry a gigabit; Cat5e vs Cat6 vs Cat6a explains which to use.
- One cable feeding the whole house. Running the NBN box’s connection to the far end of the house over a single old cable makes that cable the speed of everything after it.
- WiFi that has to go through walls. WiFi loses speed with distance, brick and concrete. A mesh system placed properly can carry a fast plan into every room; a single router in a cupboard cannot. The best mesh WiFi for Australian homes covers the choice.
- The router. An old router cannot pass a fast plan, even on a cable.
- The device. An older phone, laptop or smart TV may not be able to go as fast as the plan, however good the WiFi.
A plan of 2,000 Mbps asks the most of all this. The whole chain has to be faster than a gigabit: an older fibre connection box may need replacing, the router and computer need multi-gigabit ports, the cable from the box to the router needs to be Cat6a or better, and multi-gigabit speed over WiFi takes WiFi 7 equipment. Without those, the extra speed never reaches anything you own.
If the fast result stops at the box, the fix is inside the house: a WiFi technician who sorts out the coverage, or a cable run to the rooms that matter.
How to check what you are really getting
Test in the right order, and the numbers tell you which part of the chain is holding you back.
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Test on a cable at the modem
Plug a laptop into the modem with a network cable, turn its WiFi off and run a speed test. That is the speed coming into the house, with the WiFi taken out of it.
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Test again at about 8 pm
Evenings are the busiest time. Compare the evening cable result with the typical evening speed your provider publishes for your plan, which is the figure the ACCC asks providers to show.
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Take the router out of it
On fibre to the premises and HFC, plug the laptop straight into the NBN box and test again. If it is much faster than through the router, the router is the cap. No internet at the box at all is not proof of a fault: the box can stay locked to the old router until your provider clears it, and some providers need a login (PPPoE).
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Test on WiFi in the room that matters
Run the test on the device you use, in the room where it feels slow. The gap between this and the cable test is what the WiFi is costing you.
If the cable result at the modem is well under the evening speed your provider publishes, more speed on paper will not help. A fibre or HFC line far under its plan is usually a fault on the network side, which starts with your provider, and a new provider does not fix the line itself. Why your NBN is slow sorts the slow-all-day line from the slow-at-night network.
To test on a cable from a laptop, you need a network port. On a 1000 or 2000 plan, a gigabit port is the limit, so test with a 2.5 gigabit adapter.
We earn a small commission if you buy through our Amazon links, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
| Product | What it is for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| UGREEN USB-C to Ethernet | A network port for a laptop | View on Amazon for the UGREEN USB-C to Ethernet (opens in a new tab) |
| UGREEN 2.5G USB-C adapter | Tests plans faster than gigabit | View on Amazon for the UGREEN 2.5G USB-C adapter (opens in a new tab) |
| UGREEN Cat6 lead, 2 m | Laptop to modem, modem to switch | View on Amazon for the UGREEN Cat6 lead, 2 m (opens in a new tab) |
Upload speed: the number working from home needs
Upload is how fast your home sends data out, and it matters more than people expect for video calls, sending big files and backing up photos. Zoom asks for under 4 Mbps of upload for a full HD call, so the cheapest plans can run close to the limit with two people on calls at once. If calls freeze while downloads are fine, look at the upload figure first.
On fibre to the premises and HFC, the faster tiers carry far more upload than the everyday ones: Home Fast now has up to 50 Mbps up. If the house works from home, that is often a better reason to move up a tier than the download.
When to call a technician, and when you don’t need one
Choosing a speed tier is between you and your provider, and you do not need us to pick one. Count the people online at once, check your connection type, and compare typical evening speeds rather than tier names. If your cable test at the modem matches the plan, nothing is broken.
Call us when the test shows the house is the cap: a WiFi technician for coverage, a data cable to the office, or new cabling when the fibre upgrade has put the NBN box in the garage. If the cable result is poor on a copper line and the provider says your wiring is the problem, NBN fault repair tests which side it is on, and if devices and settings are the puzzle, an internet technician works through it on site. Ring 02 9188 1577 or send us a message.
Frequently asked questions
Is NBN 100 fast enough for a family?
For most families, yes. A full HD stream needs about 5 Mbps and a 4K stream about 15, so several screens at once still leave plenty of room. On fibre to the premises and HFC, the tier sold as NBN 100 has run several times faster since September 2025. On the copper types it is unchanged, and only as fast as the line can carry.
Can I get NBN 1000 or 2000 on fibre to the node?
No. NBN says its higher speed plans are only available on fibre to the premises and HFC. On fibre to the node, fibre to the curb and fibre to the building, the copper line sets the top speed. Some of those homes can be upgraded to fibre, which opens up the faster plans: how the fibre upgrade works.
Why am I not getting the speed I pay for?
Test on a cable at the modem first. If the cable result matches the typical evening speed your provider publishes, the NBN is delivering and the shortfall is in the house: WiFi, an old cable, an old router or the device. If the cable result is well below it, the problem is the line, the modem or the network, and that starts with your provider.
Do I need NBN 2000?
Very few homes do. It suits a household that regularly moves very large files while others stream and game. To use it, the whole chain has to keep up: an older fibre connection box may need replacing, the router and the computer need ports faster than a gigabit, and getting multi-gigabit speed over WiFi takes the newest WiFi 7 equipment.
Need this fixed rather than explained?
This is written from the field. When the fault needs a technician on site, this is where to go next.