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04 October 2024
read moreNot sure if your internet is up to speed?
Picking the right NBN plan for your home & your family is tricky.
But we're here to help!
Knowing what internet speed you need for your home is a very important consideration when comparing various broadband providers and selecting your plan. With all the jargon and technical details, it can be confusing. So here the More team will get down to basics and help you select the best plan for your household.
The speed of an internet connection is assessed by its Mpbs. Don't let the acronym scare you - it just stands for Megabits Per Second, and the higher Mpbs the faster the internet speed. For example, a plan offering average evening speeds of 50Mbps will be faster than a plan offering evening speeds of 25Mbps. And, the faster the connection, the more expensive the plan.
Typical Evening Speeds are the internet speeds you get at the busiest times of day for Australian households accessing the internet. Your internet speed will often be slower during busy evening hours when more people in more households are online at the one time.
SO HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH MBPS SPEED PLAN IS BEST FOR YOU?
The first step is to get a guide on what internet speed you're likely to need based on your lifestyle. Imagine for a moment that the nbn® plan you sign up for is a pizza you've ordered for dinner. When it's just you in the house, you can have the pizza all to yourself. But when others are at home with you, you need to share the pizza. If you have lots of people in your household, and some are especially hungry, you'll need a bigger pizza so that everyone has enough to eat.
HOME ALONE
If you live on your own, work from home from time to time and like to watch Netflix, a standard plan offering a 25Mbps Typical Evening Speed should be enough for you. However, if you love gaming, you might want to upgrade to a plan offering a 50Mbps Typical Evening Speed like our Value Plus NBN Plan.
COUPLES
When you double the people you double the competition for the internet. To keep a harmonious home, consider the times when you might both want to watch Neflix, but in different rooms. Or one might want to live-stream the football while the other binges on SBS On Demand. In theory, you may only need 25Mbps to cover your use - but once you add in social media scrolling, downloading files on your desktop and playing music on Spotify, you might be better off with the 50Mbps plan to optimise your experience and receive the best possible speeds in your home.
FAMILIES
These days, even young children are using iPads and other devices pretty regularly. So to avoid tantrums when Animal Crossing starts buffering, it's important to get your speed right. Even worse is the sound of a teen who was disconnected when just about to upload their latest TikTok dance masterpiece. And let's not forget the homework that's due tomorrow and yet to be done. Most of More’s family customers select the Value Plus plan which delivers Typical Evening Speeds of 50 Mpbs, but for those with older teenage children, the Fast plan offering 92Mbps Download/17Mbps Upload is a popular choice.
WHAT SPEEDS ARE YOU GETTING WITH YOUR EXISTING CONNECTION?
How do you know if your existing connection is giving you enough speed to suit your needs? While frustrated family members can be a good indication, it's better to get on the front foot and run a speed test online before the buffering begins. The speed test we recommend is www.speedtest.net.
A speed test will analyse three factors:
- Download speed: how fast things on the internet reach your computer
- Upload speed: how quickly you are able to upload files (such as videos, photos, or music) from your computer to the internet
- Latency: how quickly information travels between computers on a network
To get a more accurate test of the internet speed in your home, connect your computer to your modem with an ethernet cable. If you can't connect your computer, just make sure your computer is as close to your modem as possible.
SELECTING YOUR INTERNET PLAN
Now that you've conducted your lifestyle assessment and have some data on how fast your existing internet connection is, you're ready to choose the right plan. If you're not yet a More customer, we have a range of high-speed options for a competitive price - so depending on what's offered by your current provider, we may be able to provide a higher Mbps for less than you're paying on your current plan. It's quick & easy to switch to More, so check out our unlimited NBN plans & we'll have you connected in no time.
For existing customers, we make it super easy to upgrade your current plan to a higher speed tier. All you have to do is login to the Self Care Portal and make a request under the 'Change NBN Plan' tab and our team will take care of the rest. Speed changes are generally processed on the same day the request is made, so you will be surfing with extra speed before you know it.
