Faster NBN speeds are coming for FTTP and HFC users at no extra cost in September, but already ill-informed clickbait media are suggesting you will need a new router. 99.9% of the time, you won’t!
Faster NBN speeds are coming: Facts
Read Don’t rush in for faster NBN plans because most FTTP and HFC users will get the speed upgrade for nothing in September. If you don’t, then it’s time to change providers.
Any Wi-Fi 6 AX1200+, Wi-Fi 6E AXE5400+, or Wi-Fi 7 BE3600+ modem/router, router or mesh router (router) will have a 1 gigabit Ethernet WAN port. That is 1000 Mbps, and NBN consumer tiers typically cap at that speed. Simply enjoy the speed boost when it arrives.
Any of the above will have enough raw processing power to handle converting NBN signals to Wi-Fi or Ethernet for a home network.
There is no truth in the clickbait that NBN resellers throttle router speed. It is naive to suggest it, as no router has that inbuilt capability. They simply take what they are allocated and redistribute it.
To achieve speeds of over 1000 Mbps, you will need a router with a 2.5 Gbps WAN port.
Possible issues
Wi-Fi 5 AC1200+ modems may not have gigabit WAN or LAN ports. It would be rare, but some of the cheapies only have 100 Mbps. In any case, it’s time to replace these, if only for security.
If you are using a Crappy NBN Modem – here are a few better ones as a gateway, which you plug your main router into; there is a rare possibility that the router won’t get full speed.
Will I notice it?
If you currently have a 100/20 plan, in theory, you can download about 10 Megabytes per second. 500 Mbps will increase that 5X to 50 Megabytes per second. Therefore, larger movies and files will download faster; however, regardless of NBN speed, the actual download speed depends on the bandwidth allocated by the website for downloads.
For any other tasks, such as web browsing, email sending, and receiving, you won’t notice any difference.
The main difference is that multiple users or 4K video streams should be a little faster.
Test your NBN speed by running Ookla Speedtest.
The real issue is whole of home Wi-Fi
Since we have been alerting readers to crappy ISP-supplied modems, we have had an unblemished record in helping readers achieve the Wi-Fi coverage they need. A good read is Got a Wi-Fi problem but not much cash to fix it? and Seamless whole-of-home Wi-Fi is easy with Wi-Fi 6/6E/7 (2025 update network guide).
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