We are still technically a couple of months of the official implementation of the NBN 500 plans in Australia, but Exetel, one of our favorite suppliers here in Techradar, has jumped the early weapon, introducing a new plan with 500 Mbps discharge speeds.
Available from today for anyone who seeks to overcome their internet at home, provided that it is in a fiber nbn connection to the facilities (FTTP) or hybrid fiber (HFC) NBN Connection, Exetel states that its new plan is the only one to consider, and it is so sure of this that the radical movement of destruction has done all Your other NBN plans.
The price is correct
The price can be a great factor that contributes to deciding a new NBN plan. Buy and discover that high -priced ‘premium’ suppliers are charging for their plans can often catch from smaller ISPs, with an almost identical service, for much less.
The Exetel One Plan adheres absolutely to this philosophy: it is not only the first 500 consumption NBN plan in the market, but also has an incredibly competitive price only $ 80 per month.
To put this in context, the current average monthly cost of a 100mbps NBN plan, which is 5 times slower than Exetel’s offer, is just over $ 90. And, going beyond, Telstra’s 25 plan 25, which is 20x Slower That Exetel’s only plan will return the AU $ 93 per month. Exponentially more speed for less money is a victory in our book.
And, although it is possible that there is no introductory discount, something that we expect from the best NBN plans, we argue that the cost per megabit offered here is such an exceptional value that one does not even need one.
Exetel is a preferred PakGazette partner (What does that mean?)
A plan that works for you
Exetel is also introducing some new advantages with this 500 NBN Plan, including an evolution of its function of speed impulse and the ability to save some cash by “temporarily degrade” the plan while it is away from home.
In the impulse front, if you find that you need faster speeds for a short period (to download a massive new release video game, for example), you can update your 500 NBN Plan to achieve NBN 1000 speeds, which says that exetel is around 811mbps typical night speeds, by au $ 1 per day. The Telco calls this ‘warp velocity’ and, for a long time, has offered a speed impulse function in its now discontinued NBN plans that works in the same way.
The other new feature, which Exetel calls Hibernate, allows you to reduce the speed of your plan to the NBN 12 equivalent (with maximum 12 Mbps downloads) and save AU $ 1 on your monthly bill for each day that is active.
We can see that this is particularly useful if it will be away from home for a prolonged period of time, for example, when you go on vacation. There is no limit to how long can keep hibernate active, so if you leave for a month, for example, it could save up to Au $ 31.
Both urdimbre and hibernation speed can be activated and deactivated directly in the Exetel application, which is available for iPhone or Android.
Friends with benefits
Another new feature that is introduced with the Exetel One NBN Plan is a program of friends. It is not a new concept, but it is the first time that Exetel has adopted one. Through this, if he refers to a friend to Exetel, and that friend is part of NBN, both will receive au $ 1 discount on their plan each month during the time they both remain connected.
There is no limit to the number of people to whom they can refer and, as you can stackable, in theory you could obtain your free exetel service every month, although obviously you will need to have a very Great circle of friends.
How does Exetel compare with other NBN suppliers?
We are attentive to the NBN Retail Services Suppliers (RSP) here in Techradar, and we use a registered plan and consumer’s official speed price combination of the Competition and Consumer Commission of Australia (ACCC) to identify which suppliers are worth more time and money.
Exetel has been at the top of the list in many metrics for some time, since a long time ago offered competitive and regular prices when it comes to typical night discharge speeds.
In fact, in the most recent Build Broadband report, published in June 2025, it was found that Exetel reaches 104.5% of the plan’s discharge speeds during all hours of the day and an impressive 103.7% during the busiest night hours. It was only discovered that Telstra, the largest (and most expensive) supplier in the country, offered faster speeds, and even then, only for a small margin of less than 1%.
Based on its performance with other plans and what Exetel is claiming in itself, we would expect this new NBN 500 level to reach its maximum theoretical discharge speeds of 500 Mbps in many circumstances, although we will have to wait for the ACCCese (which usually has been confirmed at least several months) to confirm.
Next steps
NBN CO has great hope for the NBN 500 level in general, and although we do not have direct competitors to judge it, the Exetel One Plan is presented as a good option for most houses, promising high -speed discharges for a cheaper price than many NBN 50 and NBN 100 options.
If you want to register, you should make sure you have an HFC connection FTTP in your facilities; To confirm in any way, simply go to the Exetel website to verify your address and register. The Telco has confirmed that, at least for now, it will not be able to activate the free fiber update to take advantage of this plan.
And if it is already an exetel customer with a FTTP or HFC connection, it can easily migrate to the new plan through the Exetel application.
