If you're looking to upgrade to one of the new high-speed NBN services, there's one tier you should skip

I wrote yesterday that the new NBN 2000 plan is probably overkill for most households—even a household of internet power users. Now that Australia has a bunch of new high-speed internet offers thanks to the NBN, it's worth paying attention to just how fast you need to go. And I'm here to tell you that, based on price and other factors, the new NBN 750 tier offers are pretty middling at the moment, and you should skip them.

Keep a few things in mind: if you were previously on NBN 100 on a fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connection, you're now on an NBN 500 plan. Do you need more than that? If not: great! But if you do, based on pricing, you're probably better off graduating straight to NBN 1000.

Let's take Superloop as an example of how much love and close scrutiny NBN 750 is getting: Superloop's NBN 1000 plan is AU$85 a month for the first six months with 100Mbps uploads. Meanwhile its NBN 750 plan is AU$89 a month for the first six months with 50Mbps uploads. After the introductory offer expires in six months, NBN 1000 will increase to AU$109 a month, while NBN 750 will increase to AU$104 a month.

The chart is clearer:

Uh, yeah: NBN 750 is AU$6 cheaper for the first year with Superloop.

Other providers demonstrate that NBN 500 is the better value plan, chiefly Spintel. They offer NBN 500 with 42Mbps uploads for AU$64 a month for six months, while their NBN 750 offering is AU$80 a month for the same 42Mbps uploads (after six months, the bill will be AU$86.95 and AU$90.95 respectively). Sure, after the introductory offer, an extra four bucks for an extra 250Mbps sounds pretty good, but the starkness in difference between the introductory offers rules out any significant value with the NBN 750 plan here.

On the NBN 500 plan you're saving AU$120 a year.

Even Telstra, whose prices are usually way too high to recommend, is taking an "ah screw it" approach to NBN 750: it's AU$105 a month for six months and then AU$129 a month. NBN 1000 is AU$105 a month for six months and then AU$139 a month. Not only is the NBN 1000 plan much faster for an extra AU$60 annually, but it also doubles uploads from 40Mbps to 80Mbps.

One of the chief reasons for NBN 750 to exist at all is that is what users of NBN 250 are upgraded to. Quite why they weren't just given NBN 1000, thus eliminating the busywork of offering an NBN 750 tier at all, I don't know. What I do know is this: if you were on NBN 250 and are now on NBN 750, you're better off either downgrading to NBN 500, or upgrading to NBN 1000. And if you're not enjoying cheaper introductory offers you should switch ISPs while the high-speed NBN arms race is so consumer-friendly (unless you're locked in a contract).

If you're after a good NBN 500 plan, these are the best offers I've seen so far:

Spintel Home Turbo | 500Mbps | AU$64p/m (first 6 months, then AU$86.95p/m)

Spintel was one of the first providers to jump onto the NBN 500 wagon, and they offer the cheapest introductory price.

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Tangerine | NBN 500 | AU$68.90p/m (for 6 months, then AU$88.90p/m)

Tangerine was also an early NBN 500 contender, and while their offer seems a bit dim compared to some of the competition, it stood out pre September 4 for the fact that you were actually getting NBN 1000 for a while.

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Exetel One | NBN 500 | AU$80p/m

Exetel has gone beast mode on high speed NBN: it's introduced an NBN 500 plan and ditched every other tier, meaning signing up with this telco is pretty straightforward.

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