Choosing the right nbn™ plan and speed for your business
You probably already know the nbn™ is your ticket to fast, reliable internet, but did you know there are different plans and speeds you can choose from? Inevitably, no matter how you operate, nbn™ will be an essential change to the way you do business. But with four different speeds and plans to choose from, you really do get what you pay for.
Understanding your business requirements is an essential step in determining your nbn tier, as a recent analysis found that selecting the wrong nbn plan could cost you up to $736 a year.
Do you need to make the switch to nbn™?
Essentially, yes. The nbn™ is replacing the old phone and broadband network, and services will be progressively disconnected from the old network after the nbn is rolled out across Australia. To continue having a fixed home phone and broadband service, you’ll need to switch to phone and broadband services on the nbn.
From the date your nbn connection is ready, you’ll have 18 months to make the switch before existing services are turned off. To find out if you can get services on the nbn now, you can enter your address on the nbn rollout map, or get in touch with the team at Techwell.
So, you know you’ll need to make the switch, but what speed do you need? Take a look at the table below and check out our guide on choosing the right nbn plan for your business.
Speed tiers for nbn™ fixed line technologies (FTTP, HFC, FTTN, FTTB, FTTC)
| nbn™ Tier | Download | Upload |
|---|---|---|
| nbn 12 The basic speed offered on the nbn network. | 12Mbps | 1Mbps |
| nbn 25 The standard speed offered on the nbn network. | 25Mbps | 5Mbps |
| nbn 50 Faster than standard. | 50Mbps | 20Mbps |
| nbn 100 As fast as it gets on nbn. | 100Mbps | 40Mbps |
Speeds
As the table above shows, nbn plans are sold using speed tiers, giving you the option to pay more for a faster connection. The four-speed options are nbn 12, nbn 25, nbn 50 and nbn 100. The numbers in these titles relate to the speed of the connection. An nbn 12 plan can download data at 12Mbps, while an nbn 100 plan can download at 100Mbps.
Capacities
Tiers differ in speed, but they also relate to the capacity of the connection. That is, how well will the connection perform when multiple users use it at the same time. The best way to get your head around capacity is to think of ‘Mbps’ as the diameter of a water pipe. If you have the shower running, a load of washing on, the dishwasher is going, and somebody is trying to water the plants, you’ll need a large pipe for everyone to get what they need. The same is true for nbn connections. Although smaller teams can save money with a ‘slower’ connection, larger teams should invest in connection tiers with higher capacities.
What speed does your business need?
To accurately determine the right nbn plan and speed for your business, you should audit the uploading you do. Note, backing up files to the cloud is a big one. For example, if you’re backing up CRM databases, uploads can run into the gigabytes. If you found your ADSL2+ connection struggles to get the job done, then you’ll need to look beyond NBN 12, which has the same 1Mbps upload speed.
If your tired of slow connections and looking for the best, the nbn 100 plan upload speed of 40Mbps will upload at 5MB per second (8Mb equals 1MB). Therefore, nbn 100 will back up 1GB of data in approximately four minutes. If you’re looking for savings, the same upload will take eight minutes on nbn 50, around 25 minutes on NBN 25 and over two hours on nbn 12. The different tiers make a for a huge difference, so if your business uses or shares a lot of data, then you should consider paying the extra for a faster speed.
Do I need a business plan?
Business plans offer ongoing support teams for business customers. Quite often business plans also include extras like static IP addresses, bonus WiFi connections, mobile broadband backup and options to add business grade phones and routers.
Get in touch with the team at Techwell to organise a bespoke nbn plan for your business needs.
