Aussie Broadband vs Telstra vs TPG vs Superloop NBN Plans 2026

Paying the most for your NBN plan buys you the slowest evening speed of the four providers on this page, on the regulator's own numbers. The ACCC's April 2026 Measuring Broadband Australia report put Superloop and Exetel at 100 percent or more of advertised speed between 7pm and 11pm, Telstra at 98 to 99 percent, and TPG, iiNet and Vodafone at 96 to 98 percent, while Aussie Broadband's premium Turbofast Pro plan went to A$136 a month on 1 July 2026 and Telstra's bundled Premium plan sits at A$113. The provider at the top of the speed table is the one charging A$95.

That is the counterintuitive bit. The rest of this article is the explanation: what the 500/50, 750/50 and gigabit tiers actually are after NBN Co's September 2025 rebuild, why the intro price is the number that decides your first year and the ongoing price the number that decides every year after, what the July 2026 wholesale change did to everyone's bill, and which of Aussie Broadband, Telstra, TPG and Superloop fits a renter in an apartment, a family of four, a retiree on a 50/20 line and a gamer who cares about upload and latency. Pricing is as published by each provider and tracked by Finder in August and September 2026; the ACCC program ended with its 33rd report on 17 June 2026, so its figures are the last independent ones we will get.

The four on the 500/50 tier at a glance

Persona for the table: a family of four in a Sydney FTTP home, two parents working from home two days a week, two teenagers streaming and gaming, wanting the 500/50 tier on a no-lock-in plan. Prices are monthly, as of September 2026.

	Aussie Broadband (Fast Fibre 500/44)	Telstra (Premium 500/50)	TPG (NBN 500)	Superloop (500/50)
Intro price	A$79 for 6 months (promo to 15 Nov 2026)	No intro on internet-only	A$74.99 for 12 months	Around A$75 for 6 months
Ongoing price	A$99	A$99 internet-only, A$113 bundle with Smart Modem	A$94.99	A$95
First-year cost at intro then ongoing	A$1,068	A$1,188 internet-only	A$900	A$1,020
Typical upload	44 Mbps	50 Mbps (FTTP, HFC)	50 Mbps	50 Mbps
Modem	BYO or buy outright	Smart Modem with 4G backup on bundle	A$0 Wi-Fi 7 modem if you stay 24 months	BYO; eero Wi-Fi 7 promoted on higher tiers
Contract	None	None	None (modem repayment if you leave early)	None
Exit fee	None	None, return or pay out modem	None, modem balance	None
ACCC busy-hour speed, April 2026 report	Not individually cited; FTTP customers 98.5 percent average	98 to 99 percent	96 to 98 percent	100 percent or more
Support	Australian-based, app with outage and network transparency	Stores, phone, app	Phone, app	Phone, app
The catch	Pro plan with 178 Mbps upload is A$136; Fast Fibre is the one to buy	Bundle price is the real price for most buyers	Price lock needs the 24-month modem stay to get the free router	Six-month intro ends fast

Sources: Finder's NBN price increase tracker (25 June 2026), Finder's Aussie Broadband pricing story (20 August 2026), Finder's gigabit plan tracker (9 September 2026), Telstra's 1 July 2026 plan change notice and the ACCC's April and June 2026 Measuring Broadband Australia reports.

What changed in 2025 and 2026 that makes old comparisons wrong?

Two things. On 14 September 2025 NBN Co rebuilt its top tiers for fibre and HFC homes: the old 100/20 wholesale tier became 500/50, the old 250/25 became 750/50, and the old 1000/50 became up to 2000/200 on full fibre, at the same wholesale price as before. Retailers relabelled their plans within weeks, which is why Telstra's Premium is now 500/50 on FTTP and HFC at the price it used to charge for 100/20, and why Aussie Broadband's A$99 Fast Fibre plan is 500/44 while its A$99 Fast plan on copper is 94/18. If you are on FTTN, FTTC or FTTB, nothing changed for you: copper tops out at 100/20 and the ACCC found 11.8 percent of FTTN connections could not reach even that.

Then on 1 July 2026 NBN Co adjusted wholesale prices under its Special Access Undertaking, the pricing framework the ACCC accepted in October 2023. NBN Co's own statement put the change at just under the 3.63 percent CPI figure for the year to December 2025, or A$0 to A$2.34 a month across the most popular residential tiers, and July 2026 was also the date the last CVC capacity charges disappeared from the 12, 25 and 50 Mbps tiers. Retailers passed it through unevenly. Finder's 25 June 2026 tracker counted rises of A$2 to A$10 a month across more than 15 providers: Aussie Broadband lifted NBN 100 from A$95 to A$99, Turbofast Pro 500 from A$130 to A$136 and Ultrafast Pro 1000 from A$150 to A$160; TPG lifted NBN 1000 from A$109.99 to A$114.99; Superloop lifted its gigabit plan from A$109 to A$114; Telstra held Premium at A$99 and Ultrafast at A$129 but lifted Essential 50/20 internet-only from A$95 to A$99.

Then in August 2026 Aussie Broadband reset its line-up and prices, which is why the Fast Fibre 500/44 plan at A$79 for six months then A$99 exists alongside the dearer Pro plans. Any comparison written before that is out of date.

What each provider actually is

Aussie Broadband

Aussie Broadband is the ASX-listed challenger that built its reputation on Australian-based support, a transparency app that shows network capacity and outages, and a CG-NAT opt-out that gamers and home-server tinkerers value. Its September 2026 line-up, per Finder's 20 August 2026 report, runs Basic Plus 23/9 at A$58 for six months then A$83, Value 47/18 at A$70 then A$95, Fast 94/18 at A$79 then A$99, Fast Fibre 500/44 at A$79 then A$99, Superfast Fibre 750/44 at A$119, Ultrafast Fibre 875/92 at A$129 and Hyperfast 1,780/92 at A$189. The Pro plans with much higher upload (Turbofast Pro 500/178 at A$136, Ultrafast Pro 1000 at A$160) still exist for people who need it.

The catch: on ongoing price it is the dearest of the four on every tier, and the ACCC's reports never put it ahead of Superloop on busy-hour speed. You pay for the support and the app, not the line.

Telstra

Telstra sells NBN on two price lists. Internet-only (bring your own modem): Basic 25/5 at A$89, Essential 50/20 at A$99, Premium 500/50 at A$99, Ultimate 750/50 at A$119, Ultrafast 1000/100 at A$129. Bundle with the Telstra Smart Modem, which includes 4G mobile backup: Essential at A$113, Premium at A$113, Ultimate at A$129, Ultrafast at A$139. All figures are from Telstra's own 1 July 2026 change notice. There are no lock-in contracts; leave early and you return or pay out the modem.

The catch is that the Essential 50/20 plan and the Premium 500/50 plan cost the same A$99 internet-only, so anyone on FTTP or HFC paying for Essential is leaving speed on the table, and anyone on FTTN paying for Premium is paying the 500/50 price for 100/20.

TPG

TPG Telecom is the group behind TPG, iiNet, Internode, Westnet, Vodafone and Felix, and it runs its own backhaul, which is why it competes on price. Its NBN 500 plan is A$74.99 for 12 months then A$94.99, per Finder's 9 September 2026 listing, with a A$0 Wi-Fi 7 modem for customers who stay 24 months; NBN 100 is A$94.99 ongoing and NBN 1000 is A$114.99 after the July rise. The 12-month price lock is the longest intro of the four and the reason TPG wins the first-year cost in the table.

The catch is the ACCC's busy-hour figure of 96 to 98 percent of plan speed in the April 2026 report, the lowest band among the four, and the modem repayment if you leave before 24 months.

Superloop

Superloop is the ASX-listed provider that topped the ACCC's final reports, delivering 100 percent or more of advertised speed in peak hours alongside Exetel. Its 500/50 plan is A$95 ongoing with a six-month intro around A$75, its 750 tier A$104 after a A$79 intro, and its gigabit tier A$114 after the July rise, per Finder's September 2026 tracking. It has promoted an Amazon eero Wi-Fi 7 router with its faster plans and has sold a two-year price-lock product for customers who want certainty. No contracts, no exit fees.

The catch is that the six-month intro ends quickly and the ongoing A$95 is only A$4 under Telstra; the value is the speed per dollar, not a bargain-basement price.

Which plan is cheapest for a single renter in a one-bedroom apartment?

A 27-year-old in a Brisbane apartment with HFC, streaming on one TV and a laptop, working from home once a week, likely to move within two years.

This renter does not need 500/50 and should not pay for it. The cheapest sensible tier is 50/20 or the new 100-class plans on HFC, and at that level the comparison is simple: Aussie Broadband Value 47/18 at A$70 for six months then A$95, Telstra Essential 50/20 at A$99 internet-only, and whatever TPG and Superloop are running on their 50 and 100 tiers that month. For someone who will move, no lock-in matters more than anything, and all four deliver it; avoid TPG's 24-month modem stay unless the modem is going with you. If the apartment is FTTP and the price difference between the 100-class plan and 500/50 is under A$10 (it is at Aussie Broadband, A$79 for both intro plans), take the 500/50 and enjoy it.

Which plan is best for a family of four?

The Sydney FTTP household from the table. Four people, two of them on Zoom or Microsoft Teams calls during the day, two streaming 4K Netflix and Stan in the evening while a PlayStation 5 downloads a 100 GB patch.

500/50 is the right tier and TPG wins the first year on price: A$74.99 for 12 months is A$900 for the year against A$1,020 at Superloop and A$1,068 at Aussie Broadband. From month 13 the three are within A$5 and Superloop has the better busy-hour record, so the rational move is TPG for year one and a re-quote at month 12. If a parent's income depends on the connection, the Telstra bundle at A$113 with 4G backup is the insurance policy; A$216 a year over Superloop buys the knowledge that a street-cabinet fault does not cancel a client meeting. Whichever provider wins, a Wi-Fi 6 or 7 router is non-negotiable in a four-person home on 500/50, because a five-year-old Wi-Fi 5 router will cap every device at a fraction of the plan speed.

Which plan is best for a retiree on FTTN?

A couple in their seventies in a Perth suburb on an FTTN line, email, online banking, a weekly video call with grandchildren, one TV streaming in the evening.

The 500/50 tier does not exist for them, and neither does the 100-class tier in any meaningful way if the copper run is long. The decision is between the 25/5 and 50/20 tiers, and between a provider with phone support and one without. Telstra Basic 25/5 at A$89 internet-only or the Essential 50/20 at A$99 brings a store to walk into, which some retirees will value above A$20 a month. Aussie Broadband's Australian-based phone support is the other choice for the same reason, with Basic Plus 23/9 at A$58 for six months then A$83. TPG and Superloop are cheaper and perfectly adequate for this usage, but their support is phone and app only. Whoever they choose, they should check NBN Co's address checker for a free fibre upgrade; many FTTN homes qualify by ordering a 500/50 plan, and the upgrade is worth doing even if they then drop back to a cheaper tier.

Which plan is best for a gamer or a home-office power user?

A 32-year-old in a Melbourne FTTP home who games competitively, uploads video to clients and runs a backup to a cloud service overnight.

Upload and latency decide this one, not download. Aussie Broadband's Ultrafast Fibre 875/92 at A$129 or the Turbofast Pro 500/178 at A$136 give the upload headroom; Telstra Ultrafast 1000/100 at A$129 internet-only matches on upload. TPG and Superloop's gigabit plans at A$114.99 and A$114 are cheaper but carry the 50 Mbps upload of the 1000/50 class, which is the same upload as their 500/50 plans. For competitive gaming the CG-NAT opt-out at Aussie Broadband and its low-latency reputation in the ACCC series are worth the premium; for someone whose main need is pushing files, the Telstra 1000/100 plan at A$129 is the cheapest 100 Mbps upload here.

What actually moves the bill

Connection type. Decides which tiers you can buy. FTTP and HFC get 500/50 and above; FTTN, FTTC and FTTB stop at 100/20.

Intro versus ongoing. TPG's 12-month lock is worth up to A$240 in year one against paying ongoing from day one; Aussie Broadband's and Superloop's six-month intros are worth roughly A$120.

The 1 July wholesale change. NBN Co moves wholesale prices every July under the SAU; in 2026 the move was just under 3.63 percent and retailers passed on A$2 to A$10.

Modem bundling. Telstra's A$14 bundle premium is the 4G backup and the Smart Modem; TPG's free Wi-Fi 7 modem is tied to a 24-month stay.

Upload. The Pro and 100-upload plans cost A$15 to A$40 more than the 50-upload equivalents; most households never use it.

Tier mismatch. Paying for 500/50 on FTTN, or for Essential 50/20 on FTTP at the same A$99 as Premium 500/50 at Telstra, is the most common leak.

Verdict by buyer type

Renter, apartment, moving within two years: cheapest 50 or 100-class plan with no modem commitment; Aussie Broadband Value or Superloop's entry tier.

Family of four on FTTP: TPG NBN 500 at A$74.99 for 12 months, re-quote at month 12 against Superloop at A$95.

Household that cannot afford an outage: Telstra Premium bundle at A$113 with 4G backup.

Retiree on FTTN: Telstra Basic or Essential for in-store support, or Aussie Broadband Basic Plus for phone support; order the free fibre upgrade if offered.

Gamer or heavy uploader: Aussie Broadband Ultrafast Fibre or Telstra Ultrafast 1000/100 for upload; Superloop if download speed per dollar is the only metric.

Speed-per-dollar purist on FTTP or HFC: Superloop 500/50 at A$95, the provider the ACCC found delivering 100 percent of plan in peak hours.

Where cashback fits

None of Aussie Broadband, Telstra, TPG or Superloop is a ShopBack Australia merchant for home internet as of September 2026, which is why they are compared editorially here with no cashback claim attached to any of them. Where cashback via ShopBack does fit is the rest of the bill that sits around the connection. The mobile plan from a telco that is a ShopBack merchant, the Wi-Fi 7 router or mesh system from an electronics retailer on ShopBack, the laptop or console the connection feeds, and the streaming and software subscriptions on top of it are all purchases where activating ShopBack first earns cashback via ShopBack at the rate shown on the merchant page that day.

The mechanism is the same every time: open the ShopBack app or the Cashback Buddy browser extension, go to the merchant's ShopBack page, click through, and complete the purchase in that same session so the sale tracks. Cashback is a rebate paid after the fact and never changes the price or the terms of what you bought, so it belongs at the end of the decision, after you have picked the right tier for your line and the right provider for your household.

FAQ

What is the difference between NBN 100, NBN 500 and NBN 1000 in 2026?

They are wholesale speed tiers NBN Co sells to retailers, and since 14 September 2025 the three top tiers were rebuilt for fibre and HFC homes: the old 100/20 tier became 500/50, the old 250/25 tier became 750/50, and the old 1000/50 tier became up to 2000/200 on full fibre, at the same wholesale price as before. The first number is download in megabits per second, the second is upload. The catch is connection type. Fibre to the premises (FTTP) and HFC (cable) homes get the new speeds; fibre to the node, curb or building (FTTN, FTTC, FTTB) homes stay capped at 100/20 or lower because copper cannot carry more. Telstra's own plan page makes this explicit: its Premium plan is 500/50 on FTTP and HFC but 100/20 on FTTN, FTTC and FTTB, for the same A$99 a month. Check your address on the NBN Co website before paying for a tier your line cannot deliver.

How much does an NBN 500/50 plan cost in September 2026?

On the ongoing price, the four are within A$5 of each other. Telstra Premium is A$99 a month internet-only (A$113 bundled with the Smart Modem) and has not moved since the 1 July 2026 price round, per Telstra's own change notice. TPG NBN 500 is A$94.99 ongoing after a 12-month intro of A$74.99 (Finder, 9 September 2026). Superloop's 500/50 plan is A$95 ongoing after a six-month intro around A$75 (Finder, September 2026). Aussie Broadband's new Fast Fibre 500/44 plan is A$99 ongoing after a six-month intro of A$79, with that promotion running to 15 November 2026 (Finder, 20 August 2026); its older Turbofast Pro 500/178 plan with much higher upload rose to A$136 on 1 July 2026. The intro prices are where the real gap sits: over the first 12 months TPG's A$74.99 lock saves roughly A$240 against paying A$95 from day one.

How do I know what speed I actually get in the evening?

The ACCC's Measuring Broadband Australia program put test boxes in volunteer homes for eight years and reported busy-hour (7pm to 11pm) download speed as a percentage of the plan speed. Its 32nd report (April 2026, December 2025 quarter) found fixed-line connections averaged 98.5 percent of plan speed in busy hours, and that 500/50 plans averaged 493.7 Mbps. Its 33rd and final report, released 17 June 2026 with March 2026 data, found 99.4 percent. Within that, Exetel and Superloop were delivering 100 percent or more of advertised speed in peak hours, Telstra 98 to 99 percent, and TPG, iiNet and Vodafone 96 to 98 percent, according to the April 2026 report. The one group still underperforming was FTTN, where 11.8 percent of connections could not reach their plan speed at all. The program has now ended, so these are the last independent numbers; from here, use your provider's own speed test and the Wi-Fi-free wired test on a laptop.

Is Superloop cheaper than Aussie Broadband on the same speed?

On ongoing price, yes by a few dollars on every tier where both compete: A$95 against A$99 on 500/50, A$104 against A$119 on the 750 tier, and A$114 against A$129 on the gigabit tier, using Finder's September 2026 and Aussie Broadband's August 2026 pricing. On intro price Aussie Broadband's A$79 for six months on Fast Fibre undercuts Superloop's A$75 only if you count the extra upload (44 Mbps versus 50 Mbps is negligible) and value Aussie's Australian-based support and network transparency app. On the ACCC's April 2026 report Superloop was in the 100-percent-plus group for busy-hour speed, so paying more for Aussie Broadband does not buy a faster line. What it buys is support quality, a CG-NAT opt-out for gamers and tinkerers, and the Hyperfast 1,780/92 plan at A$189 that Superloop does not match.

Is Telstra NBN worth A$99 when TPG and Superloop are A$95?

For most households, no, and for a few, yes. The A$4 a month gap on the 500/50 tier is small, but Telstra's real price for most customers is the A$113 bundle with the Telstra Smart Modem, which includes 4G mobile backup if the fixed line drops, and that is A$18 a month more than Superloop over a year, or A$216. What you get for it is the backup, Telstra's retail store network for in-person help, Telstra Plus points and the option to bundle Foxtel or Kayo. If you work from home on something where a two-hour outage costs real money, the 4G backup alone can justify it. If you are a renter who can tether a phone for an afternoon, it cannot. Telstra's busy-hour speed in the ACCC's April 2026 report was 98 to 99 percent of plan, which is fine but not better than the cheaper two.

When is the best time to switch NBN providers?

The month your intro price ends, every time. All four providers sell on a six- or twelve-month promotional price and then step up to the ongoing rate: TPG A$74.99 to A$94.99 after 12 months, Superloop around A$75 to A$95 after six, Aussie Broadband A$79 to A$99 after six. None of them lock you in, so the cheapest household strategy is to diarise the step-up date and move to whoever is running the best intro that month, which on current pricing saves A$120 to A$240 a year. The second trigger is 1 July each year: NBN Co adjusts wholesale prices on 1 July under its Special Access Undertaking, in 2026 by just under the 3.63 percent CPI figure, or A$0 to A$2.34 a month on the popular tiers, and retailers pass it on in the weeks either side. Finder counted price rises of A$2 to A$10 a month across more than 15 providers in July 2026. Switching takes a few hours to a day on FTTP and HFC and there is no cancellation fee at any of the four.

When does paying for NBN 1000 make sense over NBN 500?

Rarely for a household, and only on full fibre. Since the September 2025 tier changes, the gigabit tier is 1000/100 at Telstra (A$129 internet-only), 875/92 at Aussie Broadband (A$129), and around 1000/50 at TPG (A$114.99) and Superloop (A$114), per their July and August 2026 pricing. That is A$15 to A$30 a month over the 500/50 tier for download speed that a single device over Wi-Fi will almost never see; a 4K Netflix stream needs about 15 Mbps and a PlayStation 5 game download is limited by the console's own storage as much as the line. The real reason to go gigabit is upload: Aussie Broadband's 92 Mbps and Telstra's 100 Mbps uploads matter if you push large video files, run off-site backups or host a NAS. For everyone else, 500/50 is the ceiling that matters, and on HFC the gigabit tier is not reliably available anyway.

Can I get cashback via ShopBack on an NBN plan?

Only where the provider is a ShopBack Australia merchant, and as of September 2026 none of Aussie Broadband, Telstra, TPG or Superloop is listed as a ShopBack merchant for home internet, so the four are compared editorially here. Where cashback via ShopBack reliably fits around a broadband decision is the rest of the home connectivity bill: the mobile plan from a telco that is a ShopBack merchant, the Wi-Fi 7 router or mesh system bought from an electronics retailer on ShopBack, and the streaming or software subscriptions that sit on top of the connection. The mechanism is the same in every case: activate through the ShopBack app or the Cashback Buddy extension, click through to the merchant, complete the purchase in that session, and the cashback tracks at whatever rate the merchant page shows that day.

Does my NBN provider give me a modem and do I need a new one for 500/50?

It depends on the plan and on what you already own. Telstra's bundle plans include the Telstra Smart Modem (which is why the bundle is A$113 against A$99 internet-only); its internet-only plans assume you bring your own. TPG has been offering a A$0 Wi-Fi 7 modem on its 500 plan if you stay connected for 24 months, per Finder's September 2026 listing. Superloop has promoted an Amazon eero Wi-Fi 7 router with its higher-tier plans. Aussie Broadband sells modems outright or lets you bring your own. Any modem from the last five years handles 500/50 on the wired side; the bottleneck at these speeds is Wi-Fi inside the house, where a Wi-Fi 5 router in a three-bedroom home will cap a single device well under 500 Mbps. If you are moving from a 100/20 plan to 500/50 and want to see the difference on a phone, a Wi-Fi 6 or 7 router is the upgrade that matters, not the plan.

What if my address is FTTN and cannot get 500/50 at all?

Then the whole 500/50 comparison does not apply to you yet, and you have two moves. First, do not pay for a tier your copper cannot carry: on FTTN, FTTC and FTTB the top tier is 100/20, and Telstra's Premium, TPG's NBN 100 and the equivalents from the other two will deliver whatever your line can manage, which the ACCC found falls short of plan speed on 11.8 percent of FTTN connections. Pick the cheapest 100/20 or 50/20 plan instead; Aussie Broadband's Fast 94/18 plan at A$79 for six months then A$99, or its Value 47/18 at A$70 then A$95, are the kind of tiers to compare. Second, check whether your address is on NBN Co's fibre upgrade list. Many FTTN and FTTC homes can order a free full-fibre upgrade by signing up to a 500/50 or faster plan with a participating provider, and all four providers here participate. If the upgrade is available, ordering it through the provider with the best 500/50 intro price gets you both the fibre and the discount in one move.

Key takeaways

On FTTP and HFC, 500/50 is the tier that matters and the four providers land within A$5 of each other once the intro ends, so the first year is decided by the promotion (TPG's 12-month A$74.99 wins) and every year after by whether you re-quote at the step-up. The ACCC's final reports say the cheapest two deliver the most of their plan speed in the evening, so a higher price buys support, a backup or upload, never a faster line. On FTTN the comparison collapses to the cheapest 50 or 100 plan plus a free fibre upgrade if your address qualifies. None of the four is a ShopBack merchant for broadband, so the cashback via ShopBack in a home connectivity budget comes from the router, the phone plan and the subscriptions around it, not the NBN plan itself.