Our best nbn plan review has been updated, plus use our table to see all broadband provider performance.
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I have been an Internode customer since 2004 on ADSL, then ADSL+2, NBN to the Node and back to ADSL+2 (or maybe itās 2+ - I canāt remember the correct abbreviation sorry) as I have shifted addresses. The NBN at my new address will be connected to the curb sometime in the early new year, and I will (unless something catastrophic happens) stay with them. When I was on the NBN I had a meter (from Choice) and I consistently had āabove the speeds I was paying forā. There has never been a problem that cannot be fixed and yes they really do care about you as customer. Nothing changed the treatment of the end user even after the original firm was bought out (I believe now x twice) and it is/was under the iiNet umbrella, (and if Iām not mistaken) iiNet is now a TPG Company. ie: When you (as a customer) need a new modem it comes completely configured to plug in and use - well thatās been my experience in the past, and I wonāt know if anything has altered until I go through the NBN connection once more. Iāve heard horror stories about many other ISPās but I just canāt fault the service Iāve had now for 15 years.
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My recommendation is to stick with them as we have done for the past decade or so.
Despite the occassional episode of incompetence, they have an Aussie call centre, and when it is extremely busy, you simply choose their callback service which is reliable.
Who needs to subject themselves to the dramas of trying to deal with call centres in India or the Philippines when you can actually get competent assistance by English speaking Aussies right here in Australia?
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It was only ever economics that drove me away from Internode. I think they have been the best of the providers I have had. However, I am now with Exetel and have been for a number of years. They arent the best, but they also are not the worst. Pricewise, I donāt think I can really do much better, and the speeds I get (again whilst not the best) are perfectly adequate for what I use the net for, for 99% of the time.
When I was first considering them, a friend who is a tech nerd told me Iād be fine as long as I didnt need tech support. I rarely do, so its all good.
Seems like not many people are using Honesty Box.
Noting this topic is categorised with an NBN subheading.
The NBN is not the only option for broadband.
Does Choice need to also provide recommendations for the Best non NBN Broadband Provider/s?
Three possible options, mobile broadband, ADSL and other Cable/Wireless.
Yes, ADSL! Consumers in the NBN FW and satellite footprint who have ADSL are able to retain their service over moving to a second rate option. But will their ISPs play nice and will Telstra maintain the current service levels?
An interesting stat that we donāt have is how many of the NBN connected premises require phone services only. Even the cheapest NBN plan appears to have data included for RSP and NBN Co needs. Without this stat the true numbers of genuine broadband customers in love with the NBN is likely overstated!
Another question then, is āWho is the Best NBN phone only providerā?
P.S.
We have two separate ADSL accounts with Westnet, now iiNet. Still great service, but not as great as when the service staff were in Perth.
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@mark_m the following articles may interest you if you havenāt already seen them. I think they link very well to the post I am replying to:
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I suspect that even Zeelandās ālow densityā farms are far more densely packed than Australian farms.
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Yes indeed they would be. The reduction in their real costs to get a service in place is perhaps the most important point though. The costs have almost halved since the projects commenced there āAverage farm connection costs in the Netherlands have come down from around ā¬7,000-ā¬8.000 (AU$11-13,000) in low-density Zeeland to ā¬3,500-ā¬4,000 (AU$5-6,000) todayā. Here in Australia no such reduction in cost to lay fibre to a house. Like the Netherlands, NZ and most other countries (including the USA) are enjoying similar reductions in their costs to lay fibre even to remote locations so what is so different here. Remoteness in the USA can be very similar to remoteness here.
Even the idea of paying a co-payment , like in the Netherlands, to get improved service would be a huge benefit. I am not including the NBN Co Technology Choice Programs which I see as a means to create a disincentive for the public to ask for an upgrade of service.
What I really think is happening is that the LNP Govt have a plan to destroy/neuter the nbnā¢ so that private enterprise is the only way to get a decent service provided. If they had totally destroyed the idea of not going forward with an nbnā¢ rather than throwing out as an alternative what they must have known was a totally sub standard MTM NBN, I think they would not have so easily won that election (and may have indeed lost it). I think most Australians were very much wanting a much improved service but the polspeak convinced them to get the dud service we have now.
Back to the topic:
Who is the best internet provider, as this topic asks, is the one that for a location that gives the best connection, an unhelpful answer really. For more densely populated areas the metrics provided by CHOICE and the ACCC can certainly help a user get a better outcome. Unfortunately even in densely populated areas, let alone rural and remote, a user can get sub-standard nbnā¢ connection infrastructure and no provider under the nbnā¢ system is going to be good there. The smaller niche providers, for example wireless internet providers or dark fibre providers, may offer vastly superior services when the nbnā¢ connection fails to be of a satisfactory technology. We need to start collating who those providers are and assessing their services to give the best quality answers we can.
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Our best NBN provider article has been updated:
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Iām guessing that your page contains third party (WhistleOut) content, meaning those of us who block all third party content (mainly ads and trackers) cannot currently see the actual results.
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More of the detail from the article:
From the same grab as @BrendanMays but the next two tabs on it
Speed%
Satisfaction %
Further down the article are these
Scores for the period July 2018 to June 2019
Satisfaction scores for all ISPs/RSPs so not just nbnā¢
Hope they help fill in the detail better for those who donāt see the infograms.
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The compressed display of the results that discards the rest of the bar is a common tool to exaggerate or highlight difference.
In a F1 race very small differences add up in the end to a win or not.
For consumers how significant are a few percentage points between similar providers of near identical services.
Should we be asking more critically why no one is in the 90ās on any score or bar one result in the 80ās?
Alternately are there some factors that are very significant that need a heavier weighting or more enquiry? The intent to more clearly identify difference.
Given how much bad press Telstra and Optus supposedly attract they donāt look that bad.
If they set the bar for the others it is a low bar and the rest of the field is only just a little better.
Or
Simplistically Telstra or Optus might upset their customers About 30% of the time, compared with iiNet or Vodafone about 24% of the time.
We are with Westnet/iiNet. Their service has been generally very good, but is sometimes inconsistent.
Our less frequent dealings with Telstra suggest it has lifted itās standard of service noticeably for the better.
P.S.
For future surveys it may prove beneficial to try and identify where dissatisfaction arises from issues outside of the ISP - RSP control. We have had significant ADSL service issues twice in the previous month. In both instances it was up to Telstra to provide services at iiNetās request, with the failure of the copper line in one instance taking a week to resolve.
How do you score that?
In another we had ongoing issues with the ADSL service for a year. Possibly attributable (a guess) to disturbance of the copper lines when the NBN force fed lots of new and additional coax for the HFC along the street. There was no remedy because the NBN was supposedly available as a replacement.
RSPās are likewise at the mercy of the NBN Co for some issues. CVC and provisioning aside.
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Agree. The bars should really be zero-based, which means differences of a couple of percentage points show as very small - which reflects the reality as shown here.
Here is a 5 minutesā work example of the last chart, without the built-in distortion:
The major takeaway is that theyāre all close, but Internode has a relatively large margin on the field.
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Thanks @mark_m and @postulative, lots for our team to think about with that feedback. Iāll be sure to flag it with them 
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Wow! Iām glad youā rarely haveā technical problems. Iām not sure I could live with the stress of ānotā having good technical support.
Something Cuoice should slso consider is diving into statistical analysis for some of the data sets they present. Such information would be of use for data analysis and for consumers to compare differences.
For the ISP satisfaction graph, say statistically there was no stastical difference for ISP where satisfsction was less than 10%. This means that the bottom five on the above graph are statistally similar, while the top three have lower satisfaction than Internode.
While raw numbers are interesting, they might not give the full picture snd why statistics are often needed to assess data.
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Are you being sarcastic? Whats with the inverted quote marks?
I manage my own tech stuff, Exetel manages theirs. Luckily I seem to know when its me, and when its them. 100% so far has been a user issue.
There is no malice no sarcasm in my reply. I am genuinely happy that you rarely have technic al problems with your ISP provider. I only commented because you said you left Internode, a company that I have been since 2004 and any problems have been addressed immediately, and the fact that you were also warned that tech issues āmay be a problemā As for the inverted quote marks, because you made them in your comment.
I hope that this comment helps.
