Nowadays, home internet comes in a few different shapes and sizes, and we love all of them. Whether it’s new tech, established tech, tech we don’t quite understand yet (but will get to the bottom of!): we embrace it all. But getting the right one for you and your household is what matters most.
That’s where two popular players come onto the field: nbn and 5G.
nbn is a well-established home internet option, and if you’re reading this article on a PC at home, chances are you’re using it. 5G, on the other hand, is fairly new in the home internet space with limited (but increasing) availability and capacity depending on where you live.
Ready to do a little homework? The first part of figuring out which internet is right for your home is dependent on where you live. And finding out is as easy as throwing your address in our Address Checker to see what’s available to you. If you’re only eligible for nbn, it will show you which specific type (there are 6, but more on that later).
Please remember that Telstra 5G Home Internet is still in its early stages and limited to certain areas.
Did you do it? If yes, congrats! You’re one step closer to finding the right internet for your home. If not, that’s okay, too – you can check your address at any time by returning here.
Now, we’re making an educated guess, but we suspect that most of you are eligible for nbn and only some of you for 5G Home Internet at this time. That’s why we’ll explain a bit more about nbn first and 5G second. Although if you’d prefer to jump straight to 5G, we’ll make it easy for you:
This is a local wireless network technology. That means you can connect to the internet within a certain area, like your home, without plugging a cable into your PC, tablet, phone or whichever device you’re using. The Wi-Fi signal is sent out from a modem and the modem gets its internet connection either from a cable (for nbn) or from the same mobile network you use on your phone (for 5G Home Internet).
So it goes:
Remember, a Wi-Fi signal has limited range, that’s why you can only use it locally. Go too far and you lose the signal. Next-gen modems like the Telstra Smart Modem 3 have stronger Wi-Fi signals, so they can reach more corners of your house.
Also remember, when you enable a Wi-Fi hotspot on your phone or broadband device, you’re creating your own local mini network!
These acronyms stand for: Local Area Network and Wireless Local Area Network. Does the second one sound familiar?
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is basically the Wi-Fi network that your modem creates.
At the same time, your modem also creates a Local Area Network (LAN), but to access that, you’ll need to connect your device to the modem with an ethernet cable. Don’t worry too much about what “ethernet” means, you can just think of it as the name of the cable, similar to how you would talk about a USB cable, HDMI cable, lightening cable, etc.
The National Broadband Network (nbn) is a government initiative that kicked off in 2011 to bring fast internet to Australia. It replaces the traditional copper telephone network as the main way for people to access the internet. It's about faster speeds and no more dial-up tones (remember those?).
Don’t care about all the detail? Skip to the recap
The nbn network uses a mix of technologies, including optical fibre cables (also called fibre optic cables), parts of the former copper telephone network, and hybrid fibre coaxial cable used for pay TV (depending on your location) to connect you to the internet.
The nbn network has more bandwidth, which means it can transmit larger chunks of data per second (Megabits per second or Mbps) than traditional analogue telephone copper cables. The higher the bandwidth, the faster you can download files, and maybe even more important, the more people can use the internet at the same time in your household. You’ll also want high bandwidth to stream 4K movies!
The introduction of optical fibre cables into the nbn network means your internet connection can carry data much further than copper cables, while minimising loss of signal strength (which would result in slower download speeds).
There are a few reasons for this:
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Okay, so now we know what nbn is and why it’s the main way to connect to the internet in Australia. We also know how it works: data transmitted across a mix of optical fibre cables, copper and coaxial cables. The missing piece of info here, though, is that not every house or apartment in Australia is directly hooked up with an optical fibre cable.
Now, let's take a closer look at the different types of nbn in Australia. There are six in total, each entirely dependent on where you live.
With an optical fibre leading directly to the premises, FTTP is generally said to be the highest performing nbn connection type.
Due to the complexity and cost of laying new fibre to each individual installation, it is also the least common.
Compatible Telstra nbn plans: Standard, Standard Plus, Premium, Superfast Add-On and Ultrafast Add-On.
The most common nbn connection types are Fibre to the Node and Fibre to the Building.
FTTN brings optical fibre to a central point on your street (or nearby street), known as a "node”. From here, it utilises existing copper wire infrastructure to connect to a wall socket inside your premises.
Utilising a mix of new optical fibre and existing copper line networks allowed a faster rollout of the nbn, however, an FTTN connection isn't capable of reaching the potential speeds of having fibre installed directly to the premises (FTTP).
Compatible Telstra nbn plans: Standard, Standard Plus, Premium (select FTTN connections only).
FTTB is the most common connection type for units, apartment buildings and many commercial buildings.
As with FTTN, an optical fibre leads to a central point in the building’s communications room, which then connects to your premises via the internal wiring already present (usually copper in older buildings, or ethernet cables in newer buildings).
Compatible Telstra nbn plans: Standard, Standard Plus, Premium (selected FTTB connections only).
With an optical fibre leading to a small telecommunications pit or pole outside your home, FTTC lies somewhere between the more complex FTTP connection and the simpler yet potentially lower-performing FTTN connection.
It typically delivers faster potential speeds than Fibre to the Node connections, as the optical fibre network leads much closer to your connection point.
Compatible Telstra nbn plans: Standard, Standard Plus, Premium
HCF connections utilise existing cable TV technology. Optical fibre leads to a node in your street, with a final stretch of coaxial cable to your premises. It has the potential to deliver fast download speeds, and is often compatible with our Superfast and Ultrafast nbn Add-Ons.
Compatible Telstra nbn plans: Standard, Standard Plus, Premium, Superfast Add-On (most HFC connections) and Ultrafast Add-On (some HFC connections).
This technology is used in regional areas where it is not practical to lay physical fibre to connect to the network.
A fixed antenna is installed on the roof, which receives a signal from your local nbn wireless tower. Internal wiring then leads to the nbn connection box inside your premises.
Compatible Telstra nbn plans: Fixed Wireless Basic, Fixed Wireless Standard, Fixed Wireless Standard Plus.
