Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking Note: Telstra has since removed the Aussie Broadband comparison from its site. Whatever the reason, there’s no doubt that Telstra cherry-picked a small handful of favourable stats to make itself appear superior to Aussie Broadband. But if you really want to get into it (and we do), Telstra’s comparison only tells a small part of the story and there are plenty of ways Aussie is “doing NBN better,” to use Telstra’s language. Let’s put Australia’s leading provider against the people’s choice in a true comparison of the two services. For example, Telstra’s cheapest NBN plan costs $80. That gets you unlimited data, Standard NBN 25 speeds and a landline with unlimited calls to Australian numbers. Aussie Broadband allows you to bring your own modem or you can pay $149 for Aussie’s recommended modem-router, the Netcomm NF18MESH. It’s up to you. Telstra might like to claim it has no cancellation fees but when you’re not given the option to refuse a modem, then forced to pay $216 for it when you cancel, it does start to feel like a cancellation fee. Aussie Broadband, on the other hand, has no hidden fees at all. Unless you do decide to opt for its recommended modem, you will only ever be asked to pay the monthly connection fee. And if you do, you pay for it upfront on your first or next bill. The better deal depends on your circumstances. Ultimately, the fact that Telstra lets you pay the modem off over time could be a good thing but at the same time, you should be able to refuse a modem if you don’t need one. Still, these things matter to a lot of people and if you’re an online gamer who relies on breakneck reaction speeds from your ISP, the averages point to Aussie Broadband as your better option. Judging by Aussie Broadband’s score on the user review site Product Review, my experience was part of the norm. Currently, Aussie Broadband holds a 4.5 out of 5 average score from over 6,000 reviews. Aussie Broadband has taken a gong in the website’s annual award for Internet Service Providers four times over (2022, 2020, 2019 and 2018). That’s quite the achievement. In Australia, the telco market has some of the most dissatisfied customers of any service or financial industry (right next to Credit and Personal Finance providers). Sadly, this is evident in Telstra’s score on Product Review. Across two entries, Telstra NBN and Telstra Broadband, the company holds a 1.7 out of 5 average from over 3,000 reviews. It’s a much lower sample than Aussie Broadband offers but still quite telling. As the largest telco in Australia, Telstra has the infrastructure in place to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable NBN speeds available. But compared to Aussie Broadband, we’re talking a speed difference of a few megabits-per-second (Mbps), which isn’t enough to justify the steep premium you pay for Telstra. In our round-up of the best NBN providers in Australia, Aussie Broadband scored a 5 out of 5. That’s not to say its perfect, just that it scored top marks across every category we reviewed it against. Telstra still scored a solid 4 out of 5 for its superior speeds and perks (like three months of Binge for free and a 4G backup modem). But overall, Aussie Broadband’s outstanding reputation with its customers and reasonable pricing is what puts it at first place. Still not sure? Here’s a longer list of plans from both Telstra and Aussiew Broadband for you to compare.
