- Cheapest
- Aussie Broadband at NBN 25 (by $6) and NBN 50 (by $4); the two are now level at NBN 100 ($99) and NBN 1000 ($129, after Telstra dropped its price).
- Fastest (ACCC verified)
- Telstra: 99.5% of advertised download at peak (ACCC final report, June 2026). Aussie Broadband: 95.2%.
- Customer satisfaction
- Aussie Broadband: 4.7/5 on ProductReview and Canstar 2026 Most Satisfied Customers winner. Telstra: 3.2/5.
- Best extras
- Telstra (mobile bundling, Telstra Air hotspots, 5G Home Internet from $70/month).
The short answer
Aussie Broadband delivers near-identical real-world speeds to Telstra for a little less at the shared lower tiers ($6 a month at NBN 25, $4 at NBN 50), and the two are now tied at NBN 100 and NBN 1000, with markedly better customer satisfaction for Aussie Broadband. In the ACCC's final Measuring Broadband Australia testing (Report 33, June 2026), Telstra hit 99.5% of advertised download speeds in the evening peak and Aussie Broadband 95.2%, a difference few households would ever notice. Unless you specifically want Telstra's ecosystem (mobile bundling, Telstra Air wifi hotspots, or its 5G Home Internet fallback), Aussie Broadband is still the better-value pick for most homes, though the price gap has narrowed further.
Current plans side by side (October 2026)
| Speed tier | Telstra | Aussie Broadband | Difference/year |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBN 25 | $89/month | $83/month | $72 |
| NBN 50 | $99/month | $95/month | $48 |
| NBN 100 | $99/month | $99/month | $0 |
| NBN 250 | $99/month | Not offered | Not comparable |
| NBN 500 | Not in our table | $99/month | Not comparable |
| NBN 1000 | $129/month | $129/month | $0 |
Prices as at October 2026, sourced from each provider's published plans. Both are month-to-month with no lock-in. Promotional pricing for new customers may apply.
Speed: the 3% that does not matter
Telstra's 99.5% ACCC peak-hour result is the best among the majors, and Aussie Broadband's 95.2% placed it among the lower scores in the monitored group. That sounds damning until you translate it: on an NBN 50 plan it is the difference of a few Mbps at 8pm. Both comfortably stream multiple 4K feeds. Aussie Broadband is also uniquely transparent about congestion, publishing real-time utilisation data for every point of interconnect on its network, something no other Australian ISP does, Telstra included.
Source: ACCC Measuring Broadband Australia, final report (Report 33, June 2026).
Support and satisfaction
Both run Australian-based support, but the outcomes differ sharply. Aussie Broadband won Canstar's 2026 Most Satisfied Customers award for NBN and holds a 4.7/5 ProductReview average; Telstra sits at 3.2/5. Telstra's scale works against it here in the same way it does for the big energy retailers: more customers, more complaint-driven reviews, and a support experience that varies with queue depth.
The Telstra ecosystem case
Telstra's honest advantages are outside the NBN plan itself: discounts and simplicity if your mobiles are already with Telstra, access to Telstra Air wifi hotspots, premium support tiers on the fastest plans, and 5G Home Internet from $70/month as an alternative where coverage allows. Aussie Broadband counters with its own strengths: gaming-optimised routing, seniors plans, and facilitation of NBN Co's free Fibre Connect FTTP upgrade for eligible FTTN and FTTC addresses.
See both at your address
Rates for Telstra and Aussie Broadband vary by distribution network. The only comparison that matters is the one at your postcode.
Compare plans nowWhen each one wins
Choose Aussie Broadband if you want near-Telstra speeds at NBN 25 or 50 for a few dollars less, you value highly rated Australian support, you are on FTTN/FTTC and want the free FTTP upgrade facilitated, or you like network transparency.
Choose Telstra if your mobiles are with Telstra and the bundle stacks up, you want the absolute best verified peak speeds and premium support, or 5G Home Internet suits your address better than fixed NBN.
Our verdict: Telstra or Aussie Broadband?
Telstra sells certainty; Aussie Broadband sells the same outcome for less at the lower tiers. The ACCC numbers say the speed gap is a few percentage points in the evening peak; the price gap is $72 a year at NBN 25 and $48 at NBN 50, with nothing to choose between them at NBN 100 or NBN 1000; and the satisfaction gap runs decisively Aussie Broadband's way. For most households Aussie Broadband still wins, but on satisfaction rather than price: at NBN 100 and NBN 1000 you pay the same either way, so the choice there is Telstra's ecosystem against Aussie Broadband's support.
The exception is the committed Telstra household, where mobile bundling and ecosystem perks genuinely offset the premium. If that is you, Telstra is defensible. Otherwise, pick Aussie Broadband and put the $48 to $72 a year saving at NBN 25 or 50 towards anything else.