With isolation comes the need for net speed

Broadband use is surging as people stay home, writes Sophie Elsworth

MANY Australians working from home during the pandemic have been forced to reassess how good their broadband is as they become more reliant on it.

Home internet usage has surged, putting more pressure on networks to ensure people can stay connected while in isolation. New independent analysis by Yougov Galaxy, commissioned on behalf of financial comparison website iselect, found 41 per cent of Australians have considered switching internet providers in the past two months. And 17 per cent actually switched providers.

iselect spokeswoman Laura Crowden said working from home had made many Australians realise they needed more reliable home internet.

“With most Aussies spending more time at home in recent months – including working and studying remotely – many of us have realised that our home internet connection quite literally isn’t up to speed,” she said.

“Now is the time to look into whether a faster internet plan or higher data allowance would be better suited to your changing internet needs, especially if you are working from home.”

Latest figures from the National Broadband Network Co show, since the start of April, it connected 154,000 premises to the network. This means NBN is available to people’s properties but they may not have connected their service.

NBN Co chief executive officer Stephen Rue said customers were hungrier than ever for larger amounts of data at faster speeds. “As at 31 March, 2020, 68 per cent of residential and business customers were connected to the NBN via wholesale speed tiers of 50Mbps

and above,” he said. “More than 80 per cent of all new customers are signing up to speeds of 50 Mbps and above.”

Since April, about one in five new NBN customers have chosen retail plans on the 100Mbps wholesale speed tier.

The ACCC’S Measuring Broadband report, released last week, says higher-priced NBN100 services are generally not needed to support households that stream large amounts of data. In most cases NBN50 is sufficient and about $20 cheaper than an NBN100 plan.

More than seven million homes and businesses are now connected to the NBN, while 4.5 million are yet to sign up.

Belong chief executive officer Ben Burge urged customers to “look out for fees and charges”.

“Will the modem be free or do you have to pay for it, and is there a connection charge?” he said. “Also, beware of temporary discounts. Calculate your average monthly cost based on paying the discounted price for the honeymoon period and then paying the ongoing rate thereafter.”