The best gigabit NBN 1000 internet plans in Australia

Gigabit internet—that is to say, broadband internet that can reach download speeds up to 1,000Mbps and upload speeds up to 50Mbps—is available via NBN (and Opticomm private fibre) to Australian homes. Well, millions of them.

To sign up for an NBN gigabit plan in Australia, you need to live in a home that’s either connected via Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) or Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC). If you don’t know what type of connection your home uses to connect to the NBN, punch in your address on the NBN Co homepage then look for the ‘Technology used in your connection’ information on the results page.

While NBN 1000 plans in Australia used to be a rare offering from a select few providers, nowadays, there are more than a dozen NBN providers that offer the fastest available consumer speed tier. The best bit is that all of the NBN 1000 plans we track in our database include unlimited data, so you can put those zippy download speeds to full use.

The best overall NBN 1000 plan from the ones we track in our database is a mix of first-year costs as well as typical evening download and upload speeds. While it’s not the fastest and didn’t benefit from initial promotional pricing at the time of writing, the TPG NBN Home Ultrafast Unlimited Plan is a great place to start gigabit NBN plan comparisons.

Eligible homes will get low $104.99 monthly pricing with $0 setup fees. If you opt for a six-month contract, TPG includes a preconfigured NBN-compatible modem-router for a $10 delivery fee. Whether you go contract or no-contract, this speedy TPG plan comes with impressive 800Mbps typical evening download speeds and 40Mbps upload speeds.

For comparison, here’s a snapshot of today’s most popular NBN 1000 plans.

Just because you want the fastest consumer NBN speed tier in Australia, doesn’t mean you want to pay the highest price. Spintel’s NBN Unlimited 1000 plan is a gigabit internet offering that strikes a good balance between promotional pricing, ongoing monthly fees and typical evening speeds.

Normally priced at $105.95 per month—which isn’t much more than the TPG plan above—the Spintel NBN Unlimited 1000 plan has a cheaper $95 monthly promo price for the first six months if you’re a new Spintel customer. Either price comes with respectable 650Mbps typical evening download speeds and 42Mbps upload speed. If you have any issues or questions, the Spintel call centre is open seven days a week.

Compare this plan with the cheapest NBN 1000 plans in our database.

For most homes in Australia, NBN 100 plans is the fastest plan available. So if you’re going to sign up for an NBN 1000 plan, you might as well take full advantage of those up-to-100-times-faster download speeds. Case in point, the Swoop NBN Home Ultrafast plan. This NBN 1000 plan boasts impressive 969Mbps typical evening download speeds and 50Mbps upload speeds.

Translation: effectively, no-compromise download and upload speeds. This speedy Swoop plan is, admittedly, a littler pricier than its peers on this page. Expect to pay a $139 typical monthly fee. At the time of writing, there were six months of discounted pricing at $119 apiece if you use the ‘WHISTLE20’ promo code at sign-up (expires 31 July 2024). For a more reliable way to save money, each successful referral nets $15 of monthly credit for six months for both referrer and referee.

For comparison, here are the speediest NBN 1000 plans in our comparison engine.

Full disclosure: the NBN 1000 plan with the cheapest monthly pricing in our database is the TPG NBN Home Ultrafast Unlimited Plan (scroll up for more on that). That said, it’s only by one cent. For the next best ongoing pricing, have a look at the Southern Phone NBN Ultrafast plan.

This Southern Phone gigabit internet plan typically costs $105 per month, which is a competitive price to pay for 650Mbps typical evening download speeds and 43Mbps upload speeds. For comparison, that’s slower than the TPG overall winner in terms of downloads (800Mbps vs 650Mbps) but slightly faster for uploads (40Mbps vs 43Mbps).

For comparison, check out the NBN 1000 plans below with the cheapest first-year fees (which includes promotional pricing).

The truth is you don’t need the fastest internet in Australia to have a quality offline or online gaming experience. That said, given the ever-growing size of digital game downloads and the subsequent multi-gigabyte game updates, the fastest internet means less time waiting and more time playing.

If you’re a gamer or live in a home where gamers crave more speeds, start comparisons with the Superloop Lightspeed NBN 1000/50 plan. Normally priced at $109 per month, new Superloop customers pay a reduced $99 monthly fee for the first six months. That’s a great starting point, but then you also get great 811Mbps typical evening speeds with 42Mbps upload speeds. Most importantly for online gamers, Superloop recently scored one of the lowest latency scores in the ACCC’s Measuring Broadband Australia quarterly program: 8.5ms during all hours and 8.7ms during busy hours. Exetel’s latency scores were slightly better but Exetel’s max-speed plan was NBN 250 at the time of writing.

If you don’t need all that speed, consider one of the popular NBN plans from other low-latency providers below.

If you live in an FTTP or HFC home, all you need to do is sign up for an NBN 1000 plan. For those living in homes connected to the NBN via Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) or Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN), the chances are good you’re currently able to sign up for a free FTTP upgrade or will be able to soon.

FTTN customers in eligible homes should order an NBN 100 plan (or faster) to secure the free fibre upgrade. Those in FTTC homes will need to order an NBN 250 or NBN 1000 plan. As long as you stay connected to that upgrade-minimum speed for 12 months, there shouldn’t be any hidden costs. Note that the FTTP upgrade pathways are slightly different for individual premises vs strata-managed buildings.

Use the ‘Check eligibility’ option on the NBN Co website to see if your home is eligible for a full fibre upgrade. You’ll need to input your address then click ‘View results’ for more information. Those living in homes connected to the NBN via Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB), Fixed Wireless NBN or NBN Sky Muster satellite are not currently eligible for a free fibre upgrade but may be able to pay for an FTTP upgrade via the NBN Technology Choice Program.

Other homes may also be eligible for private fibre via Opticomm (from select internet providers), while more will be able to sign up for a home wireless broadband plan. There are 4G and 5G options available from participating internet providers and, outside of slower availability and less availability, home wireless broadband is a viable alternative to the NBN. Under best-case conditions, home wireless broadband plans can reach download speeds beyond 600Mbps and upload speeds beyond 85Mbps.

Have a look at the list below for an idea of the most popular home wireless broadband plans from our comparison engine.