If you’re looking for an alternative to the bigger names in NBN, Aussie Broadband and Superloop are two providers that should be on your radar.
While there are differences between the two, they share a few excellent traits: solid peak hour speeds, local support, and contract-free plans with no setup or exit fees. Here’s how they compare.
Who are Aussie Broadband and Superloop?
Both Aussie Broadband and Superloop are smaller NBN providers that have made an impact on the market.
Aussie Broadband has been around for over a decade and made a name for itself thanks to a combination of consistently high evening speeds and excellent local support.
Superloop has been selling NBN plans for over three years now and acquired Exetel last year. The telco has also been in the business of providing wholesale services to other providers for over half a decade. As such, Superloop owns a lot of the infrastructure that other telcos typically rent.
Both Aussie Broadband and Superloop have connectivity at all 121 NBN Points of Interconnect. This means they have full control over their network and capacity.
Speeds
Both Aussie Broadband and Superloop offer solid evening speeds across the board, but Aussie has a slight edge on most tiers.
| NBN 1000 | NBN 250 | NBN 100 | NBN 50 | |
| Aussie Broadband | 600Mbps | 245Mbps | 98Mbps | 49Mbps |
| Superloop | 500Mbps | 240Mbps | 93Mbps | 48Mbps |
Both Superloop and Aussie Broadband back up their speed claims with bandwidth graphs. These show how much capacity the telcos have purchased on their network, versus how much capacity their customers are using.
Aussie Broadband and Superloop unlimited NBN 50 plans
On NBN 50 plans, Aussie Broadband is just ahead of Superloop, reporting typical evening speeds of 49Mbps. Superloop reports 48Mbps, but we can’t see this making a material difference.
With Superloop, you’ll pay $54.95 per month for your first six months, and $69.95 per month thereafter. On Aussie, you’re looking at $79 per month.
All Superloop and Aussie Broadband NBN plans are free from contracts and setup fees.
Aussie Broadband and Superloop unlimited NBN 100 plans
Aussie Broadband beats out Superloop when it comes to NBN 100 plans, reporting typical evening speeds of 98Mbps. Superloop reports 93Mbps.
Superloop is the more affordable of the pair, however. With Superloop, you’re looking at $69.95 per month for your first six months and $89.95 per month thereafter. On Aussie, you’ll pay $99 per month.
Superloop and Aussie Broadband are two of the few providers that also offer NBN 100 / 40 plans. Opting for an NBN 100 / 40 plan doubles your upload speed to 40Mbps, up from the standard 20Mbps most NBN 100 plans come with.
In both cases, going for an NBN 100 / 40 plan will cost you an extra $10 per month.
If you pick Superloop’s NBN 100 plan and need a new router, you can currently get a ZTE H1600 router for $99 with the promo code WOEX2022. Superloop normally charges $130 for this model. This offer is only available to customers on FTTP, FTTC, and HFC technology types and runs until May 31.
Aussie Broadband and Superloop unlimited NBN 250 plans
It’s a similar story with NBN 250 plans. On Superloop you’ll pay $99.95 per month for your first six months, and then $119.95 per month. On Aussie Broadband, you’re looking at $129 per month.
Evening speeds are pretty similar, with Aussie reporting 245Mbps and Supes 240Mbps.
NBN 250 plans are only available to FTTP and HFC premises.
If you need faster upload speeds, Aussie Broadband also has an NBN 250 plan with 100Mbps up. That’s four times faster than a standard NBN 250 plan. It will set you back $209 per month, however, and is only available to FTTP addresses.
Aussie Broadband and Superloop NBN 1000 plans
If you’re looking at the fastest NBN around (and are lucky enough to have a connection that supports it), both Aussie and Superloop have NBN 1000 plans.
Aussie Broadband charges $149 per month and reports typical evening speeds of 600Mbps.
Superloop will set you back $119.95 for your first six months and $139.95 per month thereafter. There are a few catches, however. While Supes reports typical evening speeds of 500Mbps, the plan itself is capped at 500Mbps. You’ll never see faster speeds. The plan also has a 3TB allowance, and if you go over this, you’ll be restricted to speeds of 100Mbps for the remainder of your billing month.
NBN 1000 plans are available to FTTP premises, and 95% of HFC premises.
Support
Both Aussie Broadband and Superloop offer local support, but Aussie Broadband is open for longer hours.
If you want to call Aussie, you can do so between 8:00 am and midnight, every single day other than Christmas and Good Friday. Superloop’s support hours are 7.30 am to 6.30 pm on weekdays, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on weekends, and 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on public holidays.
From personal experience, I’ve found support staff on both telcos incredibly helpful. Wait times were shorter on Aussie Broadband, but I’ve not made enough calls to either telco to say that this is always the case.
Other NBN plans
If neither Aussie Broadband nor Superloop seems right for you, here’s a selection of popular NBN 50 plans from other providers:
Alex Choros is Managing Editor at WhistleOut, Australia’s phone and internet comparison website.
This article has been updated since its original publish date.
The real question is will Superloop be around in 6 months? They have been burning money at the expense of making a profit and selling below cost doesn’t instil a lot of confidence.
Yes Superloop will be around in 6 months time. They are a publicly listed company and making a profit.
This aged well
Has your question answered itself yet?
I’m also concerned about aussie broadband one day being bought out by another player such as tpg. The second there is even hints of that, i’ll dump ’em.
Still concerned?
Aussie broadband also has 250 MB/s plan, but the upload is capped at 25
superloop also have the bonus of $20 off for the first 6 months
https://superloop.com/adl500/
Which after the 6 months makes them $10/mo cheaper than Telstra for me. So that’s kinda meh. Plus I also get a landline with unlimited calls on Telstra & a modem with 4G back up for when the NBN goes down. I’m finding everyone is starting to become the same price with the NBN regardless. I just find when I call Telstra about an issue someone is out same day or at worst, next day to fix the issue which has been like twice in the 3 years i’ve had the service.
Here’s a good example of why ABB is better than Superloop.
I signed up for HFC on Superloop at a house I was moving to. After 11 days of being told that they could not activate the service due to a poor connection I was told it would be 4 months before they could get someone onsite to activate it.
I called Aussie Broadband and was online in less than 48 hours.