Unburden Your Ping With These Cheap Congestion-Free NBN Plans

Unburden Your Ping With These Cheap Congestion-Free NBN Plans
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When shopping around for NBN plans, you’ll notice that typical evening speeds can vary from provider to provider. Not all internet providers are made equal, with some offering better speeds than others.

If you’re currently looking to upgrade your current internet connection to the fastest option possible, we’ve rounded up all the providers that are offering congestion-free plans across NBN 50, NBN 100 and NBN 250 connections.

Are congestion-free speeds guaranteed?

Before we start, it’s worth noting that while a provider may list its typical evening speeds as being congestion-free, there are external factors that may affect performance. Things like your home’s wiring or the equipment you’re using. If you have an FTTN connection, then you’ll need to be within 400m of a node if you want to hit congestion-free NBN 100 speeds.

Congestion-free NBN 50 plans

When it comes to an NBN 50 plan, there are a lot of providers offering congestion-free connections. In terms of the cheapest NBN 50 plan, Kogan is offering its NBN 50 plan for $58.90 per month for the first three months. While that introductory discount period isn’t as long as the other provider we’ll cover here, Kogan has the cheapest full-price NBN 50 plan at $68.90 per month – so you’ll spend less money in the long run.

Dodo is up next and is offering an NBN 50 plan that’s $59 per month for the first six months of your connection, before jumping up to $80 per month thereafter.

Tangerine is also a decent provider to consider. It offers a plan for $59.90 per month for the first six months, and then $79.90 per month thereafter.

Exetel is another provider worth considering. You can currently snag a plan that’s $60.99 per month for the first six months, and then $78.99 per month once the discount period ends. What makes Exetel worth considering is that it also includes a bonus feature where you can boost your connection speed to NBN 100 up to five times a month. Exetel’s speed boosts are only available to those on HFC, FTTP, and FTTN connections, so make sure you’ve got one of these before signing up.

Congestion-free NBN 100 plans

We’ve also seen the number of providers offering congestion-free NBN 100 plans increase over the past few years.

Dodo currently has the cheapest NBN 100 plan from this group. At $64 per month, this is an introductory offer that’ll last for the first six months of your connections. After this discount period ends, the plan’s price will jump up to $85 per month.

With Exetel, you’ll pay $68.99 per month for the first six months of your connection, and then $84.99 per month thereafter. Similar to its NBN 50 plan, Exetel also offers five speed boosts to NBN 250 every month. However, you’ll need to have an FTTP or HFC connection to get this boost.

If you want a slightly faster upload speed, Exetel has a similar introductory offer for its NBN 100/40 plan. You’ll pay $74.99 per month for the first six months, and then $88.99 per month. You’ll get typical upload speeds of 34Mbps, compared to 17Mbps available through the standard NBN 100 plan.

SpinTel is offering a plan that’s $69 per month for the first six months, and then $79.95 per month after that. Even at full price, it’s one of the cheapest plans in this speed tier, so you’ll be paying less if you plan on sticking with one provider for a long time.

Congestion-free NBN 250 plans

When it comes to congestion-free NBN 250 plans, it used to be Telstra’s way or the highway. However, a few more telcos have begun offering congestion-free NBN 250 connections, with competitive pricing.

Telstra currently has the cheapest congestion-free NBN 250 plan, where you’ll pay only $1 for the first month of your connection. After that, the price of the NBN plan will increase to the standard price of $135 per month. The plan is contract-free, so you can leave it whenever you want, but if you do so within your first two years, you’ll have to return your modem or pay a $200 non-return fee.

Up next is Swoop, where you’ll pay $84 per month for the first six months of your connection and then $119 per month once the discount period ends. Compared to NBN 250 plans in general, that’s one of the cheaper plans you can go with, so it’s not a bad option if you’re after a discount. Swoop’s plans are also contract-free, so you’re able to swap providers before the price increases with no strings attached.

While Southern Phone doesn’t have the cheapest NBN 250 deal, it has better long-term value. It has the cheapest full-price plan of these congestion-free NBN 250 connections, where you’ll be paying a flat rate of $95 per month. It’ll shake out to be cheaper than both Swoop and Telstra over a 12-month period, which is good news if you’re the kind of person who prefers to set and forget instead of changing providers every six months.

This article has been updated since it was first published.

Image: Pierrot

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