Bafflingly, over half of Aussie households have said 'no thanks' to NBN Co's speedy new tiers

NBN Co has announced its half-year financial and operational results for the six months to December 31, 2025 and on the whole, things are looking positive for the nation’s major broadband services provider.

One of the standout figures is the 287,000 premises that upgraded from aging copper-based infrastructure technologies to a newer and faster fibre to the premises (FTTP) connection. This free upgrade to ‘full fibre’ is necessary if you want to connect to the fastest NBN plans.

As a result of the upgrade surge, NBN Co says there are now 2.99 million premises that connect to the network via FTTP (up from 2.42 million a year ago), and a total of 2.72 million premises signed up to an NBN 500 plan or faster.

Looking the other way

While those figures are impressive, what they don’t explicitly highlight is the number of Australian premises who’re stubbornly sticking (or are stuck) with outdated connection technologies – and so haven’t taken advantage of the NBN speed upgrades that NBN Co launched in September 2025.

NBN Co claims there are currently 8.647 million active connections. Take away the 2.99 million that connect via FTTP, roughly 2 million on HFC and about 400,000 on fixed wireless technologies, and you’re still left with 3 million premises that connect via an older, inferior technology.

As TechRadar Australia’s resident broadband expert, I can honestly say I’m somewhat baffled by that statistic.

No reason to not upgrade?

The easiest justification for activating the fibre upgrade is that it’s totally free. All you have to do is sign up with a supporting NBN provider and order a plan that offers at least 500Mbps download speeds.

Previously, that requirement was to order a plan offering 100Mbps, but following NBN Co’s rollout of upgraded speed tiers in late 2025, this has now changed – 100Mbps plans are no longer available for FTTP connections, having been replaced with 500Mbps, usually for the exact same price.

Secondly, and perhaps obviously, you’ll benefit from much faster download speeds. NBN Co added in its half-year results that the average monthly data download per premise now sits at 557GB, and for FTTP premises, that figure rises to 668GB. I reckon the latter is higher because homes that connect via FTTP will find they have a strong, stable and fast internet connection – or in other words, one that’s more usable, with no buffering when trying to download large files or stream 4K content.

And finally, the other good reason to upgrade is that you’ll be futureproofing your home. While I was a little surprised when NBN Co announced it would be rolling out upgraded speed tiers in 2025, it has now set a precedent that I’d expect to see repeated in future. While we can only speculate at this stage, it’s entirely possible we could see five or even 10Gbps download speeds within the next 10 years. In order to get them, you’ll need a full-fibre connection – and of course a Wi-Fi router capable of delivering those speeds around your home.

Ok, you’ve sold it to me. What do I do now?

If you’re ready to upgrade, the first thing you need to do is find a suitable 500Mbps plan from a provider that’s participating in the free upgrade program. That could very well be your current provider, but I’d strongly suggest shopping around to see what discounts are available.

You can view my guide to the best internet deals for the latest offers – some providers such as Dodo, Optus and Kogan Internet are currently offering 12-month discounts, so you can lock in a low price for a full year. (Alternatively, you can view the current most popular NBN 500 plans in the price comparison tool below.)

With your provider chosen, all you need to do is enter your address, and you’ll be told whether your home qualifies for the free upgrade. If it is, you’ll then need to select the plan you want to sign up for – 500Mbps or above – and your provider will take care of the rest.

You’ll be contacted by NBN Co, who will arrange a time for a technician to come and install the necessary equipment. Once it’s installed, your provider should contact you, letting you know the installation is a success and they’ll flip the switch on your new plan.