NBN Co has announced its half-year financial and operating results for the half-year to December 31, 2025, and overall things are looking positive for the country’s leading broadband service provider.
One of the most notable figures is the 287,000 installations that converted from older copper-based infrastructure technologies to newer, faster fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) connection. This free upgrade to ‘full fibre’ is required if you want to connect to the fastest NBN plans.
looking away
While those figures are impressive, what they don’t explicitly highlight is the number of Australian installations that are stubbornly sticking (or stuck) to outdated connection technologies and therefore haven’t taken advantage of the NBN speed upgrades that NBN Co launched in September 2025.
NBN Co says there are currently 8.647 million active connections. If we remove the 2.99 million that connect via FTTP, approximately 2 million via HFC, and around 400,000 via fixed wireless technologies, we are still left with 3 million installations that connect via older, inferior technology.
As TechRadar Australia’s resident broadband expert, I can honestly say I’m a little baffled by that statistic.
Is there no reason not to update?
The simplest justification for activating the fiber upgrade is that it is completely free. All you have to do is sign up with a compatible NBN provider and order a plan that offers download speeds of at least 500Mbps.
Previously, that requirement was to order a plan that offered 100Mbps, but following the launch of improved speed tiers by NBN Co in late 2025, this has now changed: 100Mbps plans are no longer available for FTTP connections, having been replaced by 500Mbps, usually for exactly the same price.
Secondly, and perhaps obviously, you will benefit from much faster download speeds. NBN Co added in its half-year results that the average monthly data download per installation is now 557GB, and for FTTP installations, that figure rises to 668GB. I think the latter is greater because households that connect via FTTP will find that they have a strong, stable and fast Internet connection, or in other words, one that is more usable, without buffering when trying to download large files or stream 4K content.
And finally, the other good reason to upgrade is that you will be future-proofing your home. While I was a little surprised when NBN Co announced it would be rolling out improved speed tiers in 2025, it has now set a precedent that I hope will be repeated in the future. While we can only speculate at this stage, it’s entirely possible that we could see download speeds of five or even 10 Gbps in the next 10 years. To get them, you’ll need a full fiber connection and, of course, a Wi-Fi router capable of delivering those speeds in your home.
Ok, you sold it to me. What do I do now?
If you’re ready to upgrade, the first thing you should do is find a suitable 500 Mbps plan from a provider that participates in the free upgrade program. That may very well be your current provider, but I highly recommend shopping around to see what discounts are available.
You can check out my guide to the best internet deals for the latest deals – some providers like Dodo, Optus and Kogan Internet are currently offering 12-month discounts, so you can lock in a low price for a full year. (Alternatively, you can see the currently most popular NBN 500 plans in the price comparison tool below.)
Once you’ve chosen your provider, all you need to do is enter your address and you’ll be told if your home qualifies for the free upgrade. If so, you’ll need to select the plan you want to subscribe to (500 Mbps or higher) and your provider will take care of the rest.
NBN Co will contact you and arrange an appointment for a technician to come and install the necessary equipment. Once it’s installed, your provider should contact you to let you know the installation was successful and they will flip the switch on your new plan.
