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Australia's best NBN provider

We've calculated Australia's top NBN provider for performance and customer satisfaction.

download speed on laptop
Last updated: 03 August 2023
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Checked for accuracy by our qualified fact-checkers and verifiers. Find out more about fact-checking at CHOICE.

When choosing an internet service provider (ISP) you want to make sure the company you go with can deliver on the speeds they promise and give you a connection you can rely on.

To determine the best, we reviewed the speed of connection in homes around Australia using real-world data and asked people to rate their satisfaction with their NBN provider.

CH Best Brand generic

Best NBN brand for 2023: Aussie Broadband

Aussie Broadband takes out this year's Best Brand NBN with a score of 88%, largely thanks to its high overall customer satisfaction score of 84%. 

This is the third year in a row that Aussie Broadband has placed first. It's also the third year we've had enough data to include this ISP in our Best Brand NBN scores, making it three for three.

Telstra is the second best NBN provider at 84%, after which the playing field levels out with iiNet and TPG both scoring 83%, and Optus scoring 82%. Second last place was Dodo & iPrimus (81%), Vodafone rounding out the field at 80%.

Most of the Best Brand NBN scores are similar compared with this time last year, varying by only 1–2%. Aussie Broadband's top score of 88% is a slight slip from 2022's 89%.

To find out which specific services we recommend, click on the 'Recommended' box in the filters section of our broadband internet provider reviews.

Fastest NBN provider: Launtel

Launtel-logo-OL4

Launtel was the fastest overall NBN provider for the second year running, with a score of 97%, but unfortunately doesn't have a satisfaction score and so couldn't be included in the Best Brand NBN rankings.

Next were Exetel, Optus and Telstra at 94%, with Vodafone at 93%. Our Best Brand NBN winner, Aussie Broadband, scored 91% for speed.

In last place was MyRepublic with 81%.

Most satisfied NBN customers: Aussie Broadband

aussie broadband logo

Aussie Broadband has the most satisfied customers according to our survey. Its NBN customer satisfaction score of 84% is significantly above the competition and the main reason it's taken out the top spot three years in a row.

The next highest is Belong (77%), which doesn't meet our criteria for a Best Brand NBN ranking since we don't have an NBN speed score for it, and after that it's TPG, iiNet and Dodo & iPrimus at 76%.

NBN speed data vs perception

As with last year, there's a discrepancy between how satisfied customers are with their NBN speed and their ISP's NBN speed score as recorded by the ACCC.

 Brand  NBN speed score  NBN speed satisfaction
 Optus  94%  69%
 Telstra  94%  73%
 Vodafone  93%  67%
 TPG  91%  76%
 Aussie Broadband  91%  84%
 iiNet  90%  75%
 Dodo & iPrimus  87%  76%

We don't have data to explain this discrepancy between recorded speeds and customer satisfaction, but it's interesting to note nonetheless.

How we get our results

Our Best Brand NBN scores are made up of two evenly weighted figures: an overall speed score and an overall satisfaction score, both of which rely on volunteers. If we don't have enough data for either score for a specific provider, we can't give a Best Brand NBN score.

We do still include data for providers in instances where we only have one score – NBN speed or satisfaction. However, they can't be given a Best Brand ranking.

This year's examples include:

  • Belong – not enough NBN speed data
  • Exetel – not enough NBN satisfaction data
  • Launtel – not enough NBN satisfaction data
  • Superloop – not enough NBN satisfaction data
  • MyRepublic – not enough NBN satisfaction data.

The overall NBN speed score is obtained by averaging out the publicly available speed monitoring data provided by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) every three months.

We take the raw data and apply a scoring methodology based on how close a product's upload and download speeds come to its NBN wholesale speed tier. 

We define NBN products as plans whose speed tier, NBN connection technology, and brand are identical – e.g. a Home Fast (100/40) plan from Aussie Broadband running on a fibre to the node (FTTN) connection.

If any product doesn't have enough volunteers providing data to allow for a useful comparison, we don't include it.

The overall satisfaction score is taken from our biennial internet provider satisfaction survey, the most recent of which we conducted in 2023. If we don't receive enough responses for a provider, they're left out of this scoring for the sake of accuracy.

Why we've partnered with WhistleOut

We've partnered with search engine WhistleOut to help you find and buy the right plan for you. The 'Search Providers' button above will take you to their site. While we make money if you buy through WhistleOut, this doesn't influence our rankings. 100% of the money we make goes straight back into our nonprofit mission.

We care about accuracy. See something that's not quite right in this article? Let us know or read more about fact-checking at CHOICE.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.