The Best Broadband Plans in Australia

There is no shortage of broadband plans to choose from in Australia, but as is the case in other countries around the world, some broadband plans are better than others. With a huge range of providers, download caps, speed and setup fees, it can be difficult for even the most technically savvy Australians to choose a home or business broadband plan.

Save yourself the significant hassle of spending endless hours trying to find a suitable plan from all the different providers, phoning their support and waiting on hold endlessly: choose from the fastest, cheapest and biggest plans available and get yourself sorted with a broadband internet plan that works for you today.

So to make it easier, here is a comparison of features and our recommended broadband internet plans for Australians.

The Top Performing Plans

The Fastest Broadband Plan in Australia
BigPond’s 30,000Kbps +400MB cable plan is the fastest available, but at a hefty price: $49.95 a month with a cap of 400 megabytes. Data past the cap is charged $0.15 per megabyte. BigPond will discount the monthly charge by $10 if it is bundled with a Telstra home phone line. This plan requires a monthly contract, and there is no peak time.

The Australian Broadband Plan With the Biggest Cap
iPrimus’s Big Kahuna and Dodo’s Rhodium plan both come with 200gb of service each month over ADSL. Dodo’s setup fee of $69.99, but the monthly charge is $10 a month cheaper than iPriumus at $69.95 a month, and an additional $10 is discounted for Dodo’s home phone customers. The Big Kahuna could go on the fastest list at 24,000Kbps, while Rhodium is a still impressive 20,000Kbps.

Australia’s Cheapest Broadband Internet Plan
The Starter Plan from Netspace may seem like a bargain with speeds of 20,000kbps for only $9.95 a month, but the setup fee is a staggering $149.

Dodo Bronze is $19.90 a month, or $9.90 a month when bundled with one of their home phones, beating Netspace by five cents. However, this gives you a tiny download cap of 150mb, with an equally low download speed of 256kbps. Excess data is charged at $0.18 per megabyte, which even the most frugal user will probably reach. The Bronze plan also requires a twenty-four month contract.

Surprisingly, the next cheapest option is Optus’ Mobile Wireless Broadband. When included with mobile or home phone service, Optus charges $19.99 a month for cellular-based Internet. Like Dodo Bronze, the download speed is limited to 256Kbps, while downloads are capped at 1 GB. Most people who buy this plan will be more interested in the service’s convenience than its performance.

Broadband Jargon

If you’ve been looking around the various ISPs then you’re probably already intimately acquainted with download caps and overuse charges, but if you aren’t, then this helpful information should help make the decision process a little less confusing.

Speed
If you like streaming videos or download most of your software purchases, speed is at a premium. ADSL2 offers the fastest speeds, but it’s only available in limited areas.

Download Cap:
If you go over the cap, you will still have internet access, but either the download speed will drop or steep charges will be added, as high as $0.18 per megabyte. If you’re worried about going over, consider Exetel: they’re by far the cheapest, charging $3 per gigabyte ($0.003 per megabyte). Simple online tasks don’t use much bandwidth, but fans of streaming music and video will want a high cap: one minute of video on YouTube is about 3.5 megabytes.

Fee Chargers:
Netspace, Vodaphone, Exetel, Bigpond

Speed Limiters:
Optus, Internode, Netspace, iPrimus, iiNet

Installation:
Most plans have free installation, but a few will require a fee on signing. Even if there is a fee, this may be reduced or removed if you sign up for a longer contract. Netspace, Optus, and Dodo are the highest at around $150 for setup.

Peak Times:
All but a few plans will have “peak” and “off peak” times, dividing the download cap between the two. Typically, peak time will be around 6a.m. to midnight. This encourages users to save major downloads until late at night to reduce strain on the network.

Discounts:
People buying other services from a company may qualify for discounts on service. Currently, Optus, Dodo, and Netspace do this while Exetel only offers phone service to broadband customers.

Access:
The best plan is useless if it is unavailable where you live. Dodo and Vodafone specialise in servicing the bush, while Netspace is one of the few ISP’s in Tasmania. Speeds will also vary area to area, so you should contact your local provider to find out what the actual performance would be for your installation.