While NBNCo would like us to all wait patiently for their trucks to roll along our streets and connect us to the national network, the reality is that a combination of impatience and mixed reports of network performance have many people considering the alternatives. While the NBN garners lots of attention and a connection to your home is mandatory, you don't actually have to use that connection. There are alternative services that mean you can sidestep signing up with the NBN/RSP combination. Here are some of the alternatives.

In late 2017 I signed a thirty year mortgage on a house in Melbourne's northern suburbs, in an area due to be connected to the NBN in "early 2018". With the ink barely dry on the contract, NBN Co announced it was halting all planned rollouts until further notice. Cable was not available in the area, so I assumed my only option was ADSL.

NBN connections are becoming available in more and more places as the network rolls out, but it's not worth rushing into the switch even if you've been waiting for years. Switching over to the NBN can be complicated, so here's what you need to make sure you do before you take the leap.

Another year, the same old multi-technology-mixed mess. Unsurprisingly, this year has been filled with as much NBN-related drama as the last few, from congestion issues to dodgy advertisers to runaway cars taking out whole connection nodes. And, as always, a good number of the population still don't know when they're getting it. Let's look back through some of this year's most infuriating NBN news (so far).

The ACCC released its third report on real-world NBN speeds at the start of this month, and the results were mostly good. While there's always room for improvement, most fixed-line NBN customers are consistently getting close to the speeds they're paying for.

Of course, not all internet providers are equal.

The image above was shared on the Facebook page Hills District Dads (HDD) Sydney under the caption 'Fibre aggregation node. NBN style.' Um. Just what the hell is going on?

You may not have noticed it, the information can be hard to find, but more NBN RSPs now publish average evening speed data on their websites, so we can finally see the difference in performance between the cheap plans and the expensive ones.

Despite all of the hard work going into the NBN rollout, fixed-line internet isn't going to be the best internet solution for every household. Depending on how many people there are at home, and how much you use the internet, you might find that going mobile is an awesome option.

A laggy internet connection is the last thing you want when playing online games. It can also ruin an online movie and even cause problems while making rapid searches on Google. This is sometimes caused by deliberate internet throttling - and your internet service provider (ISP) is to blame.

No one wants slow internet, but getting a fast connection isn’t always straightforward. Differences in technology and location can greatly limit your options sometimes. At the same time, we’re all after the best deal – or in some cases, the least worst – so whether you're currently getting online through the NBN, ADSL, or mobile broadband, we’ve picked out some plans worth taking a look at.

The ACCC, in its most recent quarterly report, says that of the almost 4.5 million residents that have an NBN broadband connection at home, almost half of them are on fast plans with speeds of 50Mbps or more. That's a ten-fold increase on the proportion of users on fast plans at the end of 2017.

Wouldn't it be great if you could try an NBN plan before you buy it? It turns out you can. 30-day free trials are everywhere these days, but they haven't quite made their way to the world of telco. This is a bit of a shame when it comes to the NBN; while all providers are technically reselling access to the same network, they're far from equal.

While bigger telcos like Optus use the fact that they are a 'Tier 1' provider as a selling point, there's never been a proven advantage to this over retailers that don't own their own networks: until now. For the first time the ACCC has compared speeds between the main NBN retailers and the ones who have to lease backhaul capacity: and shown up a notable discrepancy.

By 2020, every household in Australia is expected to connect to the NBN - and those who don't will have a raft of telecommunications products and services switched off. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has put together an infographic explaining five things you need to know to ensure the big switch runs as smoothly as possible.

NBN Co has launched a new Enterprise Ethernet product over its broadband access network for business and government customers. Boasting point-to-point fibre connections with 'symmetrical' speeds of up to 1Gbps, it has been billed as the network's first internationally compliant wholesale offering. Here are the details.

You might be surprised to learn that location is starting to take second place to internet connectivity as a search criteria for new office space. And this is causing a massive problem.

Consumer watchdogs CHOICE recently published the results of their Best NBN Providers report, and found iiNet at the top of the heap. Combining real-world speed tests and customer satisfaction scores, iiNet sits in first place above TPG, Telstra and Optus - in that order.

Complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) are on the up but the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) acknowledges the trend is beginning to change direction. But this is the third consecutive year that consumers have voiced discontent with the services provided by their telco.

Thanks to the mess that the NBN has become, many Aussies fed up with dismal speeds and congestion on the NBN have resigned themselves to waiting for 5G to replace fixed connections. Most experts agree that 5G won't fully replace fixed connections, however - but it might be able to provide the speed fix the NBN desperately needs.