- Cheapest
- Aussie Broadband, by $10 to $20 per month at every speed tier ($120 to $240 a year).
- Fastest (ACCC verified)
- Telstra: 100% of advertised download at peak. Aussie Broadband: 97%.
- 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 $85/month).
The short answer
Aussie Broadband delivers near-identical real-world speeds to Telstra for $10 to $20 less per month at every tier, with markedly better customer satisfaction. In the ACCC's Measuring Broadband Australia testing, Telstra hit 100% of advertised download speeds in the evening peak and Aussie Broadband 97%, 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 the better-value pick for most homes.
Current plans side by side (July 2026)
| Speed tier | Telstra | Aussie Broadband | Difference/year |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBN 25 | $80/month | $69/month | $132 |
| NBN 50 | $90/month | $79/month | $132 |
| NBN 100 | $100/month | $89/month | $132 |
| NBN 250 | $120/month | $109/month | $132 |
| NBN 1000 | $140/month | $129/month | $132 |
Prices as at July 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 100% ACCC peak-hour result is the best among the majors, and Aussie Broadband's 97% actually placed it last among the 12 providers the ACCC monitors. That sounds damning until you translate it: on an NBN 50 plan it is the difference between 50 Mbps and 48.5 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 report, 2025-26.
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 $85/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 a clearly lower price, 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. The ACCC numbers say the speed gap is 3% in the evening peak; the price gap is $132 a year at every tier; and the satisfaction gap runs decisively Aussie Broadband's way. For most households this one is not close: Aussie Broadband wins.
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, put the $132 towards literally anything else.