What Internet Plan is Best for Me?
Last year’s global COVID-19 outbreak brought about changes to—and continues to change—the daily lifestyle and routines of many individuals, couples, and families around the world. The stay-at-home orders, lockdowns, and restricted hours of operation put in place by most businesses to curtail the spread of the virus impacted numerous people economically and socially. For example, in many cases, a significant number of employers and business owners decided to temporarily or indefinitely close their brick-and-mortar workspaces and transform their teams into remote workforces. In the United States, Australia, and many other countries, such changes could mean working from home for some people or increased free time for others.
Whether you’re a remote worker staying socially distant from your colleagues and members of the public, a student, or a caregiver for others, there’s a good chance that you’re relying more heavily on your home internet for business, school, or recreational activities. For example, suppose you notice an increase in your internet usage because you spend more time conducting online business, checking your electronic mail, connecting with others on social media, reading blogs, or surfing the world wide web. In that case, you might feel the need to up the ante on your plan to ensure you can efficiently complete your tasks. Fortunately for Australian residents, the NBN is ready to meet this need for increased bandwidth. Listed below are ways you can determine what plan is the best for you and information about the NBN that can help you make the switch you need.
Ensure that the NBN is available in your area.
The NBN—National Broadband Network—is in the final rollout stage, with most premises in Australia connecting to NBN services that have replaced the old phone and broadband network. With this in mind, your first order of business is to check if the NBN is available for you at your home or business location. By inputting your address into the NBN Co’s online address checker, you can confirm if the NBN is available where you live. If you live in an apartment or unit and have to wait to connect to the NBN while houses in your area have an established connection, keep in mind that connecting single-dwelling units to the NBN is more straightforward. Connecting multi-dwelling units to the NBN entails extra steps like extensive, additional cabling or liaising with an owners’ corporation, body corporate, or strata management.
Consider how many residents are in your household.
The number of residents dwelling with you can influence which plan may be most suitable for your household. For example, would you be the only person using it, or would a spouse, children, or roommates use it, too? Keeping the number of household members in mind, also think about how many devices you’ll connect to the NBN simultaneously and the various ways you all may use the internet.
With an NBN connection on a fixed line, there are five different speed tiers, making it easy for you to get the best internet plan for every resident’s online needs. Each speed tier offers increased potential for more efficient uploads and downloads. The most basic NBN package (Home Basic I) can handle speeds below 12 Mbps during busy periods, making this option suitable for emails and phone calls. By contrast, one of the more robust plans (Home Superfast) has 150Mbps speeds. Each increased speed tier enables householders and residents to complete more tasks more efficiently. Whether your household consists of multiple remote workers or students, the Home Superfast connection can equip everyone to easily manage 4K to 8K streaming, large downloads, and large file uploads.
After learning about differing NBN speeds, consider your plan’s provider, price, and quality. For guidance in making the right decision, consider using a reputable online comparison site that compiles all the information you’ll need regarding NBN plans and can help you understand your connection options. Considering NBN Co’s response to COVID-19—enhancing the network capacity for internet providers to access at no extra charge—any NBN plan you choose will enable you to use the internet like never before at a time when you need it the most.
