How long does it take to get the Internet connected?

Internet connectivity is one of those services most of us take for granted, which is great when you’re hooked up online in your home or office – but what happens when you move to a new location? That’s the time when you need to consider your broadband options, not only in terms of the best NBN plans available, but whether or not you can actually get online in the first place.

In this guide we’ll walk you through what to typically expect for each type of Internet connection you may want to consider:

For a lot of Australian internet users, getting online in a new premises involves connecting to the National Broadband Network. As a reminder, this is a mixed technology network where the connection type available to you is determined by the location of your dwelling; you don’t get a “choice” as to which of FTTP, HFC, FTTB, FTTC, FTTN, Fixed Wireless or Sky Muster Satellite NBN is available to you, though it is feasible for customers in the FTTN footprint to upgrade to FTTP.

So the first thing to do when you land in your new place is… well, it’s to make the coffee, isn’t it?

But once that vital step is sorted out, what you really need to do is work out whether your premises has already been connected to the NBN, or if a new connection is required.

The presence of an NBN connection box either inside or outside your home might be a dead giveaway – and as a reminder, when you’re moving out of your existing premises, the NBN-labelled gear legally has to stay there, as it’s provisioned for those premises only – but you can also check online using NBN’s address checker..

You don’t even have to be in the premises to work that out, because if NBN Co says that a premises is already connected to the NBN, all you should need to do is sort out any needed hardware (such as modems and routers) and sort out the best NBN plan for your needs.

The actual wait time to get NBN provisioned at a home or office where there’s already a live connection should not be long at all, because all the actual hardware is in place; it’s just a matter of getting an NBN ISP to actually provision you service there, so this should not take more than a day or two – and in some cases, it should be feasible to get it up and running on the same day.

What about if you’re told by NBN Co that your premises isn’t already connected? That could be because it was passed by for connection by prior occupants, or because it was a notably difficult build for environmental reasons – or it could be an entirely new home or housing estate that hasn’t yet been hooked up.

Here you may have to wait a little longer depending on your precise connection technology and the state of the NBN rollout in your area. That may entail NBN Co’s subcontractors rolling out fresh fibre or copper down your street, or it may just involve NBN technician visits to install the necessary hardware for fixed line, fixed wireless or NBN Sky Muster services to be activated.

NBN ISP estimates vary depending on technology type and the state of the local network rollout; for fixed line NBN services where it’s just a question of connecting up a premises that could be 1-2 weeks, but where larger scope works are required you could be talking some months depending on NBN schedules and the availability of NBN technicians to do the actual work.

Tip: If you are stuck waiting for an NBN connection to be finalised, consider using a mobile data SIM for broadband purposes while you wait.

Home Wireless Internet connections typically utilise the existing 4G and 5G networks to provide you with broadband, typically with a specific ISP-supplied modem-router that you plug into a wall socket once it’s arrived after ordering it from your mobile broadband ISP.

Excluding any unforeseen coverage factors – and most wireless internet providers won’t sell you a service if they’re not reasonably confident that you’ll get decent coverage in the first place – the setup time here is mostly going to be waiting for the modem-router to arrive, and then maybe a few minutes of running through a setup routine before it finds the local mobile towers and connects.

The exception here in the home wireless internet space is SpaceX’s Starlink. Starlink relies on a system of low earth orbit satellites to deliver wireless home internet services, and above and beyond whatever time it takes to ship you a Starlink kit, it requires a slightly more involved physical installation and calibration process.

In many cases you can handle this yourself, though if it’s optimal to install the Skylink equipment on a roof-mounted rack it may be wiser to use the services of a suitably qualified contractor instead. All being well, a typical Starlink install shouldn’t take more than a few hours, however.

Mobile broadband, like home wireless internet relies on the 4G and 5G networks to provide you with Internet access, but unlike a home wireless internet service, you don’t particularly need a specific modem-router to use it, and there’s few real pre-service qualification checks to undertake. You can set up a mobile broadband service with something as simple as a $99 Android phone and a Nano SIM if you like, using the phone as a mobile hotspot.

Fancier options such as mobile broadband hotspots will service more devices over a wider area, and might be worth considering if you’re going to be using mobile broadband over a longer span of time.

As long as you’re in an area with some level of mobile service, there should be virtually no install time to speak of with Mobile Broadband beyond the time it takes to sling a SIM into a device (or activate an eSIM) and power it up. The challenge with mobile broadband is that unlimited data deals are few and far between, so you’re best served checking around carefully for the best mobile data deals.