Field guide · 2025
NBN speed tiers explained for home internet buyers
NBN speed tiers are the wholesale speed steps NBN Co sells to internet providers, and they set the top speed your home plan can reach. Pick a tier that fits how many people and devices share your connection. Pay for more only if you will use it.
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What a speed tier is
NBN Co is the company that built the National Broadband Network. It does not sell plans to you. It sells wholesale products to internet providers, and each product has a set top speed for downloads and uploads. The provider then builds a retail plan on top and sets the price.
That means the tier is a ceiling, not a promise. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says each plan has a maximum off-peak speed that the provider has bought from the NBN, and that this limits how fast your plan can go at any time of day. It gives 12, 25, 50 and 100 Mbps as examples. Mbps means megabits per second. Higher numbers mean faster downloads.
The tiers, from slowest to fastest
NBN Co names its home tiers Home Basic I, Home Basic II, Home Standard, Home Fast, Home Superfast and Home Ultrafast. The higher ones are the newer ones. In May 2020 NBN Co launched three of them at once.
- Home Fast: peak wholesale download speeds of up to 100 Mbps and uploads of up to 20 Mbps. It is sold across all fixed line NBN types.
- Home Superfast: up to 250 Mbps down and 25 Mbps up.
- Home Ultrafast: 500 to close to 1000 Mbps down, depending on the NBN type at your home, and up to 50 Mbps up.
Below these sit Home Standard, Home Basic II and Home Basic I, the entry steps. NBN Co says Home Basic I suits very basic use such as email and phone calls.
What speed you will see in the evening
The top speed is not what you feel at 8 pm. Homes all over your suburb go online at the same time, and the busy evening hours are when slowdowns show up. NBN Co publishes the speeds it expects in a typical busy period.
| Tier | Typical busy period download |
|---|---|
| Home Basic II | At least 15 Mbps |
| Home Standard | At least 30 Mbps |
| Home Fast | At least 60 Mbps |
| Home Superfast | More than 150 Mbps |
NBN Co says Home Basic I products have typical busy period speeds of less than 12 Mbps. These figures come from NBN Co as a guide. Your own result also depends on your wiring, your router and how your provider runs its network.
How to pick a tier for your household
Start with people, not megabits. Count how many people stream, game, study or work from home at the same time.
- One or two people who browse, email and stream standard video: a lower tier can do the job. NBN Co describes Home Basic II as built for a household with few users online.
- A family or share house with several screens, with video calls and HD streaming: look at Home Standard or Home Fast.
- Many devices, 4K video, regular gaming and large downloads at once: Home Superfast or Home Ultrafast may make sense.
Check what is on offer at your address first. Not every tier is sold on every kind of connection. NBN Co said in 2020 that Home Fast reaches all fixed line NBN types. At launch, NBN Co said Home Superfast was available to about 32 per cent of premises ready to connect and Home Ultrafast to about 18 per cent. Providers also choose which tiers they sell.
What to ask a provider before you sign
The ACCC asks providers to advertise the speed a plan typically delivers in the busy evening period of 7 pm to 11 pm, not just the top speed. It suggests four tiers named Basic, Standard, Standard Plus and Premium, each tied to a busy-period speed. Standard means a minimum of 15 Mbps in the busy period, Standard Plus 30 Mbps and Premium 60 Mbps. The ACCC has also said it is not acceptable to advertise an "up to" speed claim, because it can suggest that speed is available at all times.
So ask three plain questions. What is the typical evening speed of this plan? Which tier is it built on? What can I do if I do not get that speed? A provider that follows the ACCC guide should answer all three, and should fix speed problems promptly.
Faster tiers are on the way
On 5 September 2024 NBN Co said it would speed up its three top home products from 14 September 2025. Home Fast is due to go from 100/20 to 500/50 Mbps, Home Superfast from 250/25 to 750/50 Mbps, and Home Ultrafast will double its upload speed to about 100 Mbps. NBN Co also plans a new Home Hyperfast tier with wholesale speeds of 2000 Mbps down, for homes on fibre or cable. NBN Co said wholesale prices would not change because of the speed increases.
These changes are months away, and it is up to each provider when to offer them. Customers already on these tiers should speed up on their own once their provider switches the upgrade on. For now, buy for the household you have today.
Quick checklist
- Treat the tier as a ceiling, not a guarantee.
- Ask for the typical 7 pm to 11 pm speed.
- Match the tier to how many people are online at once.
- Check which tiers are sold at your address.
Our own limit: the editors read what NBN Co, the ACCC and providers publish. We do not run speed tests.