Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking In the past, it used to cost money just to get a quote, but that’s changed in more recent times, even if it’s far from cheap. That said, NBN Co has also announced plans for an upgrade program that’s set to happen between 2021 and 2023 with the goal of getting 75% of homes and businesses capable of connecting to gigabit internet plans by the end of 2023. Technically, almost every home in Australia is eligible for FTTP though. If you’re in an FTTN or FTTC area, there’s a good chance your home will be upgraded to an FTTP connection in the next couple of years, but there is a catch. When a free FTTP upgrade is available in lucky FTTN areas, FTTN homes will have to order at least an NBN 100 plan to kick off the upgrade. For fortunate FTTC homes that are in FTTP upgrade areas, they’ll need to order at least an NBN 250 plan to kickstart the free upgrade. At the time of writing, the plan was for 2 million homes to be able to access an FTTP connection by the end of 2023, joining the 3.5 million-ish FTTP and HFC homes that can already access gigabit internet. This translates to these areas in the following states:

CamdaleCooeeDevonportHowrahLeganaOcean VistaPark GrovePaklandsSandy BayShorewell ParkTranmere

BanksCampbellConderDicksonGordonHumeLynehamO’ConnorReidTurner

By the middle of 2021, HFC users should be able to get NBN 250 plans, and most should be able to tap into gigabit plans by the end of 2023. No further on-premises work should be required for these HFC upgrades, which means you should be able to order an NBN 250 or NBN 1000 plan once the upgrade is complete. If you don’t want to do this or can’t bear the idea of waiting on NBN Co to get around to upgrading your suburb on their time, you can also apply for an upgrade through the Technology Choice Program. This can costs thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, but process itself is fairly straightforward. For now, the only option is to get a quote through the NBN Technology Choice Program and then anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to have your connection type upgraded. The bad news is that there’s not much to be done but wait for NBN Co get around to upgrading your suburb. The good news is that the company says that most HFC connections should be upgraded by the middle of 2022. In contrast to those upgrading from FTTC connections, you also won’t have to do anything to spark the upgrade process. You just sign up for a new plan and you should be good to go when it comes to accessing the fast download and upload speeds. Normally, there are three options for requesting a quote: Individual Switch for an individual home, Group Switch for a number of premises , and Area Switch for an area. At the time of writing, the Group Switch and Area Switch options were unavailable on the Technology Choice Program website. Here’s the steps to take if you want to get an FTTP quote for your home: You’ll be emailed a quote outlining the cost to upgrade to FTTP. If you follow the steps above, you’ll be emailed a quote almost straight away, but it’s only valid for 24 hours. You can request another quote later. Click on the ‘View your quote now’ link in the email to see your quote. This is where you want to be sitting down. Expect costs to range from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. The quote prices also vary depending on when you do them. For instance, our FTTC test initially quoted a $9,898 FTTP upgrade fee but, at the time of writing this article, the cost was $8,572 (prices include GST). Whatever the cost, if you’re okay to wear it and want to proceed, click on the ‘Submit an Individual Premises Switch application’ and follow the prompts to get the FTTP ball rolling.

Proximity to existing NBN infrastructure Distance between premises (where applicable) Complexity of required construction Original NBN technology vs FTTP Remoteness of your home

While these kinds of connectivity solutions do require decent coverage when it comes to Australia’s mobile networks, they can provide speeds that are comparable or even faster than what you can expect from a FTTP upgrade connection. You can check out the widget below for a round up of cheap NBN alternative internet options.