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Australia’s NBN took a big step forward in September 2025 with the arrival of 2Gbps NBN 2000 plans, part of a wider rollout of NBN speed upgrades designed to bring faster speeds to more homes. It was an impressive jump — but it turns out it may have only scratched the surface of what the network can really deliver.
That’s because NBN Co has recently conducted lab trials using the current fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology, which serves the fastest NBN plans. The trials revealed that the full fibre connection could achieve download speeds of 230Gbps — some 100 times faster than the current maximum residential speeds available.
How was NBN Co able to achieve such insane speeds using the current infrastructure? Coherent optics. This, according to NBN Co, is a “type of advanced communications technology typically found within core and data centre networks, with vast reach, low latency and massive capacity required to meet ever-growing demand”.
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In layman’s terms, it’s a more advanced way of sending data over fibre that uses the light signal more efficiently, allowing it to carry more data and work better over longer distances. And in even simpler terms, NBN Co has proven its current fibre network can support even faster services in the future without needing brand-new cabling to be laid.
Sweet! When can I get blitzing-fast internet?
Hold on there for a second. While it’s now been proven that the current FTTP infrastructure has the potential to deliver speeds we wouldn’t have thought possible just a few years ago, it’s purely a trial for now.
Considering anyone wishing to sign up for an NBN 2000 plan will need a new network termination device (NTD) to support 2Gbps speeds, then new, more advanced hardware will most definitely be needed to support speeds over 100 times faster.
Do we even need these fast speeds?
The prospect of 230Gbps download speeds is undeniably cool and exciting — you could download a 140GB game in about 4.9 seconds, for example — but do we actually need them?
I monitor the best NBN plans regularly and have noticed that the number of providers offering a 2Gbps NBN plan has been declining. There were approximately seven providers when the new speed tier launched in September 2025, but at the time of writing, that number has dropped to around four.
In my mind, this decline is a result of a lack of interest from customers. This could be for several reasons, but I feel the most likely culprits are cost — the average monthly rate is AU$173p/m at the time of writing — and the fact that most homes in Australia can be served perfectly fine with a slower plan.
That being said, NBN Co adds that demand for higher data consumption continues to increase. It’s said that as of December 31, 2025, “average monthly data download was 557 gigabytes per active service across connected premises, up 13 per cent year-on-year, with FTTP services averaging 668 gigabytes, up 14 per cent year-on-year as customers embraced higher speeds.”
While I’ve made no secret of my love for the best NBN 500 plans, as I believe they offer the perfect combination of speed and value, the fact remains that many people are more than satisfied with the best NBN 50 plans.
Indeed, in a recent article of mine highlighting how many Australians have yet to upgrade to full fibre technology, a few users commented that a 50Mbps plan is more than satisfactory for their needs. Others added that NBN Co’s free fibre upgrade isn’t always as ‘free’ as it claims, and so isn’t a viable option, while the increased cost is another reason to hold off switching to a faster plan.
On that latter point, I feel upgrading an NBN plan from 25Mbps or 50Mbps to 500Mbps is a good economic move. At the time of writing, the average cost of an NBN 25 plan is just under AU$74p/m, and just under AU$88p/m for an NBN 50. The average cost of an NBN 500 is AU$94p/m — AU$20 more than a plan that’s 20 times slower, and just AU$6 more than a plan 10 times slower.
As for how much a 230Gbps NBN plan would cost, that remains to be seen.