How to get NBN or home internet connected

nbn is the wholesale network operator. It built and runs the infrastructure, and it sells access to retail service providers rather than to households. You cannot buy a service directly from nbn, and nbn is not the party you complain to when something is wrong.

Retail service providers — the familiar telco brands and dozens of smaller ones — buy wholesale capacity and resell it as retail plans. They set the price, the data allowance, the contract terms, the router they supply, the support you get, and critically how much capacity they buy relative to how many customers they sign up.

That last decision is invisible at the point of sale and is the single largest cause of the gap between advertised and delivered speed. Two customers at the same address on the same wholesale tier with different retailers can have measurably different evening performance, because one retailer bought enough capacity for its customer base and the other did not.

Not every address is served by nbn. Some newer developments are served by other fixed-line networks that operate under similar arrangements, and in those areas your retailer choice may be narrower. The address check will tell you.

There is also a genuine alternative that did not exist a few years ago: home internet delivered over a mobile network, usually marketed as 5G home internet. It requires no fixed-line installation, can be set up the day the modem arrives, and in areas with good coverage performs well. It is more variable than a fixed line because it shares capacity with mobile users, and coverage inside a particular building is hard to predict, but for renters and short-term occupants it removes the installation problem entirely.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority publishes guidance on choosing a telco, and the ACCC publishes independent measurement of how retailers actually perform. Both are neutral in a market where almost every other comparison site earns a commission on the plan you pick.

Use the nbn address checker before you look at any plan. It tells you what technology serves your address, whether the address is ready to connect, and whether any work is needed. This takes a minute and it determines what is realistically achievable.

Understand what the answer means. Fibre to the premises runs fibre the whole way and supports the highest tiers reliably. Fibre to the node runs fibre to a street cabinet and copper for the final stretch, so achievable speed depends on the length and condition of that copper — some lines cannot reach the higher tiers at all. Fibre to the curb shortens the copper run and generally performs better. Hybrid fibre coaxial uses the old pay television cable. Fixed wireless and satellite serve regional and remote addresses and have their own characteristics and typically lower peak speeds.

If you are on fibre to the node or fibre to the curb, check whether your address is eligible for a fibre upgrade. Upgrades to full fibre have been progressively made available, usually triggered by ordering a higher-tier plan, and there is often no installation charge. This is the single largest available improvement for many households and it is not advertised to you.

Choose a retailer using the ACCC's published broadband performance data alongside the retailer's own typical evening speed figure. Check whether the plan is month to month or on a contract, what the router costs and whether it is locked to that provider, and what the total first-month cost is including any activation fee.

Order, and note the connection date you are given. If a technician appointment is needed, you generally must be home, and the appointment windows are half-day blocks. Do not cancel your existing service until the new one is working.

If anyone in the household has a life-threatening medical condition that depends on a working phone line, tell the retailer and ask about priority assistance when you order. It carries obligations about connection timeframes and fault repair that ordinary services do not, and it must be requested.

The tier name describes the wholesale product. The number that describes what you will experience is the typical evening busy period speed, measured between 7pm and 11pm, which retailers are expected to publish for each plan. Compare that figure across retailers for the same tier and the differences are often substantial.

The ACCC's broadband performance programme independently measures real household connections and publishes results by retailer and by technology. It is the closest thing to an objective answer to 'which provider is actually faster', and it costs nothing to read.

Work out what speed you actually need rather than buying the highest tier by default. Video streaming, video calls and general browsing are not demanding; the load comes from several high-definition streams at once, large downloads, and households with many devices. A mid-tier plan that consistently delivers is better than a high-tier plan that does not, and on some technologies the high tier cannot be delivered at all.

Unlimited data is now standard on most fixed-line plans, so data allowance is rarely the differentiator it once was. On mobile-based home internet it very much still is.

Look at what happens after the introductory period. Discounted rates for the first six months that revert to a higher ongoing price are common, and the ongoing price is the one you will pay for most of the time you hold the plan. Set a reminder for when the discount ends.

Check the exit terms. Month-to-month plans can be left with short notice. Contract plans may have an early termination charge, and a bundled router is often paid off over the contract with the balance falling due if you leave early.

Finally, be sceptical of comparison sites. Most are paid a commission by the retailers they list, which shapes what appears and in what order. The ACMA and ACCC material is not.

Many connections are self-install: equipment arrives in the post, you plug it into an existing wall socket or connection box, and the service activates on a nominated date. This is common where a previous occupant was connected on the same technology.

A technician visit is needed where new equipment must be installed, where the connection type is changing, or where there is a fault on the line. For fibre to the premises, a technician installs an nbn connection box inside the property and usually a small utility box outside. You need to be there, and you need to know where you want the equipment, because moving it afterwards is a chargeable job.

Renters need the property owner's permission for any installation involving new cabling or equipment attached to the building. Ask the agent in writing before the appointment, not on the day.

The connection box and your router both need mains power. This has an important consequence people discover in an emergency: unlike the old copper telephone service, which drew power from the exchange, a modern connection stops working in a blackout, including any home phone service running over it. If you rely on a landline for medical alarms or emergency calls, plan for a charged mobile as the backup, and raise it with your provider when ordering.

Devices other than computers may need attention when you switch: medical alarms, back-to-base security systems, lift emergency phones and some fax and EFTPOS machines were built for the copper network and may need reconfiguring or replacing. Check before the switchover, because the failure is silent.

If the appointment is missed or the connection does not activate on the promised date, that is a matter for your retailer to chase with nbn on your behalf. You should not be calling nbn yourself, and a retailer telling you to do so is not meeting its obligation.

Keep the old service running until the new one works. The overlap costs a few days of double payment and prevents the far more expensive problem of being without a connection for a fortnight.

First, isolate the problem. Test with a device connected by cable rather than wi-fi, because a large share of 'slow internet' is actually a wi-fi problem inside the house — distance from the router, thick walls, interference, or an old router. Run a speed test at several times of day, including in the evening peak, and write the results down with times.

If the cabled evening speed is well below the typical evening speed the retailer published for your plan, that is a service problem and you have a claim. Report it to the retailer, get a fault reference number, and keep a log of every contact.

Australian Consumer Law applies to telecommunications services. Services must be provided with due care and skill, be fit for the purpose described, and match the description they were sold under. A plan that cannot deliver the tier it was sold as entitles you to a remedy, which commonly means moving to a lower tier with a corresponding refund of the difference, and in more serious cases exiting the contract without penalty.

Retailers also have obligations under industry rules about how they handle complaints, including acknowledging them, giving you a reference and resolving them within set timeframes. The ACMA publishes what those obligations require and takes enforcement action against providers that systematically fail them.

If the service is disconnected — for non-payment or for any other reason — there are rules about the notice you must be given and the financial hardship arrangements a provider must offer. Contact them before disconnection rather than after; the options available in advance are much wider.

If the provider does not resolve it, take it to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. It is free, it is independent, and it can make decisions binding on the provider up to a monetary limit. Its jurisdiction covers connection delays, faults, billing disputes, contract terms, and complaints about how a complaint was handled.

One further protection worth knowing: transferring a service to another provider without the account holder's authorisation is unlawful, and the ACCC publishes guidance on what to do if it happens to you. If a service moves without your consent, raise it with both providers immediately and then with the TIO.

Tell your provider about a move well in advance. Moving a service is not instantaneous, the new address may have different technology, and the plan you hold may not exist at the new address. Some providers charge a relocation fee; some waive it if you re-contract, which is a trade worth thinking about rather than accepting automatically.

Check the new address before you commit to the move if you work from home. An address on fibre to the node with a long copper run may not support the speed your job requires, and finding out after you sign a lease is expensive.

Switching providers on the same line does not usually require a technician. The new provider handles the transfer and the changeover is generally quick, though there can be a short outage. Do not cancel the old service yourself; cancelling first can release the line and complicate the transfer.

Check what you owe on exit: an early termination charge if you are in contract, and any remaining balance on a router being paid off. Ask for the figure in writing before you order the new service.

Keep your email address independent of your provider. An address tied to a telco brand is a genuine obstacle to switching and a real problem if the service is disconnected, because you can lose access to the account recovery route for everything else.

Finally, revisit the plan annually. Telecommunications pricing moves, new-customer offers are consistently better than the ongoing rates paid by existing customers, and a phone call asking to be moved to the current offer succeeds often enough to be worth the ten minutes.