Keep up to speed
WITH THE NUMBER OF ‘SMART’ DEVICES ON THE INCREASE IN AUSTRALIAN HOUSEHOLDS, A RELIABLE INTERNET CONNECTION WITH DECENT DATA SPEEDS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER.
As our homes and appliances become increasingly reliant on the internet, ensuring your household has decent data speeds is a must, and this highlights the need to choose an internet provider and NBN plan with care. The past two years have driven big changes in our lifestyles. More than 40% of Australians worked from home during Covid, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and it could be driving a long-term trend. A study by the Melbourne Institute found that 34% of Australians would like to spend all of their working week at home, and 64% would like to work at least half of their week from home. As we move out of the pandemic, the need for decent internet access isn’t just about a well-functioning home office. “We are so dependent on the internet for different activities, it is essential to have a reliable connection,” says Andrew Branson, C(2 of NBN provider More. A report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) confirms how tech savvy our homes have become. Forty-six per cent of households have five or more devices connected to the internet, up from 28% in 2017. In addition, eight out of 10 homes now have “smart” devices – anything from TVs and wearables through to dishwashers that rely on data to function. The upshot is that we are using considerably more data than ever before. In the three months to -une 2021, ACMA found Australians downloaded 8.8 million terabytes (TB) of data over fixed networks, compared with 6.3 million TB in the final quarter of 2019 – a jump of 40%. (See table, right)
Choosing the right plan
2ur appetite for data makes it essential to pick the right internet plan. Branson notes that More plans have always had unlimited data, and this is the case for many other providers. The trick lies in selecting the right speed, and this can be a source of confusion. The download speed that is right for your household is chiefly shaped by the number of devices in the home that rely on the internet. The more you have, the greater the need for speed. “The speed of an internet connection is assessed by megabits per second or µMbps’,” Branson explains. “The higher the Mbps, the faster the internet speed.”
A plan offering average evening (peak usage time) speeds of 50Mbps will be faster than a plan offering evening speeds of 25Mbps. But the faster the connection, the more expensive the plan. “Consumers can be tempted to select the cheapest plan, however having a reliable connection is the critical issue,” says Branson. 2pting for a plan with a slower speed can lead to frustration, as it will slow download times. That can mean a dodgy =oom meeting, an unhappy teen who’s struggling to upload their latest TikTok video or, worse, a toddler whose favourite streamed TV show is buffering at a snail’s pace. According to Branson, a single-person household may be fine with a plan offering 25Mbps. If you’re a family of four, or you share a rental with several flatmates, that sort of speed is unlikely to be sufficient. “We have definitely seen a gradual change in the choice of plans,” says Branson. “More’s 25Mbps plan used to be the favourite. Today the go-to speed is 50Mbps, with 100Mbps being the second most popular.” +e adds that in the future, we could see 100Mbps or even faster become “the market norm”.
Compare the cost of plans
As with any service it makes sense to shop around for an internet provider. Comparison sites are useful here, although as living costs rise it pays to look for providers that offer a few perks. Commonwealth Bank customers, for example, can score discounted NBN services with More. The current deal can get you up to 30% off NBN plans for 12 months when you sign up to More using your CommBank debit or credit card. As a guide, this will cut the monthly cost of More’s 100Mbps plan from $99 to $69.30. Not surprisingly, Branson says some More customers have signed up to Commonwealth Bank just to access the savings.
Look for flexibility
If you’re not sure which speed to opt for, the good news is that you don’t have to be locked into a set contract. “All More’s plans are no-contract, and most of the market is moving this way,” says Branson. +e adds that upgrading or downgrading an NBN plan to increase or decrease speeds can be as easy as heading to your internet provider’s website and switching online. “In a matter of minutes you can be on a faster or slower speed,” he says. The beauty of this flexibility is that consumers can adjust their internet speeds (and plan costs) for those times when extra speed is required. Branson cites the example of a holiday home, where the owner can upgrade their plan for, say, the summer vacation, then drop it back to a slower, and cheaper, speed for those times when the property is used only occasionally.
Check your hardware