Australia’s NBN took an enormous step ahead in September 2025 with the arrival of 2Gbps NBN 2000 plans, a part of a wider rollout of NBN velocity upgrades designed to carry quicker speeds to extra properties. It was a formidable bounce — but it surely seems it could have solely scratched the floor of what the community can actually ship.
That’s as a result of NBN Co has not too long ago performed lab trials utilizing the present fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) expertise, which serves the quickest NBN plans. The trials revealed that the complete fibre connection might obtain obtain speeds of 230Gbps — some 100 instances quicker than the present most residential speeds accessible.
How was NBN Co in a position to obtain such insane speeds utilizing the present infrastructure? Coherent optics. This, in line with NBN Co, is a “sort of superior communications expertise usually discovered inside core and information centre networks, with huge attain, low latency and large capability required to fulfill ever-growing demand”.
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In layman’s phrases, it’s a extra superior manner of sending information over fibre that makes use of the sunshine sign extra effectively, permitting it to hold extra information and work higher over longer distances. And in even easier phrases, NBN Co has confirmed its present fibre community can assist even quicker companies sooner or later without having brand-new cabling to be laid.
Candy! When can I get blitzing-fast web?
Maintain on there for a second. Whereas it’s now been confirmed that the present FTTP infrastructure has the potential to ship speeds we wouldn’t have thought doable just some years in the past, it’s purely a trial for now.
Contemplating anybody wishing to join an NBN 2000 plan will want a brand new community termination system (NTD) to assist 2Gbps speeds, then new, extra superior {hardware} will most positively be wanted to assist speeds over 100 instances quicker.
Will we even want these quick speeds?
The prospect of 230Gbps obtain speeds is undeniably cool and thrilling — you can obtain a 140GB recreation in about 4.9 seconds, for instance — however can we really want them?
I monitor the very best NBN plans often and have observed that the variety of suppliers providing a 2Gbps NBN plan has been declining. There have been roughly seven suppliers when the brand new velocity tier launched in September 2025, however on the time of writing, that quantity has dropped to round 4.
In my thoughts, this decline is a results of a scarcity of curiosity from prospects. This could possibly be for a number of causes, however I really feel the almost certainly culprits are price — the typical month-to-month fee is AU$173p/m on the time of writing — and the truth that most properties in Australia will be served completely nice with a slower plan.
That being mentioned, NBN Co provides that demand for larger information consumption continues to extend. It is mentioned that as of December 31, 2025, “common month-to-month information obtain was 557 gigabytes per energetic service throughout linked premises, up 13 per cent year-on-year, with FTTP companies averaging 668 gigabytes, up 14 per cent year-on-year as prospects embraced larger speeds.”
What to learn subsequent
Whereas I’ve made no secret of my love for the very best NBN 500 plans, as I imagine they provide the right mixture of velocity and worth, the very fact stays that many individuals are greater than glad with the very best NBN 50 plans.
Certainly, in a latest article of mine highlighting what number of Australians have but to improve to full fibre expertise, a number of customers commented {that a} 50Mbps plan is greater than passable for his or her wants. Others added that NBN Co’s free fibre improve isn’t at all times as ‘free’ because it claims, and so isn’t a viable choice, whereas the elevated price is one more reason to carry off switching to a quicker plan.
On that latter level, I really feel upgrading an NBN plan from 25Mbps or 50Mbps to 500Mbps is an effective financial transfer. On the time of writing, the typical price of an NBN 25 plan is slightly below AU$74p/m, and slightly below AU$88p/m for an NBN 50. The typical price of an NBN 500 is AU$94p/m — AU$20 greater than a plan that’s 20 instances slower, and simply AU$6 greater than a plan 10 instances slower.
As for the way a lot a 230Gbps NBN plan would price, that is still to be seen.
