NBN delivering but bottlenecks at home hamper performance

The NBN is delivering its high-capacity vision but the bottleneck may be an ageing router, poor Wi-Fi coverage or the location of the equipment, writes Paul Budde.

FOR MOST OF ITS HISTORY, debate about the National Broadband Network (NBN) has concentrated on what it failed to deliver.

The original fibre-to-the-premises vision was replaced by a multi-technology network that retained much of Australia’s ageing copper infrastructure. Costs increased, completion was delayed and many users received a network that struggled to meet growing demand.

New independent research from Opensignal, however, shows that the NBN’s accelerating transition towards fibre, combined with much faster speed tiers, is now producing substantial improvements for consumers.

The NBN is finally developing into the high-capacity national digital utility Australia originally set out to build.

NBN’s success vindicates original vision — but the job's not done

NBN Co's FY26 results demonstrate the transition from copper to fibre is producing the benefits many predicted from the beginning.

Fibre is making the difference

Opensignal’s August 2026 Australia Fixed Broadband Experience Report examined services from Australia’s major fixed-line providers.

All providers recorded considerable improvements following NBN Co’s Accelerate Great initiative, introduced in September 2025. Superloop recorded the fastest average fixed-line download and upload speeds, while Optus and Superloop shared several awards for reliability, consistent quality and video performance.

The rankings are useful for consumers, but the more significant finding is that performance improved across the industry.

The share of fixed-line connections using fibre to the premises (FTTP) has nearly doubled since 2022. Meanwhile, plans offering 500 Mbps or more have increased from only 4 per cent of NBN fixed-line services in the second quarter of 2025 to more than one-third.

The results vindicate the technical principle behind the original NBN: fibre should be extended as far as economically possible because it provides the capacity, reliability and longevity required by an increasingly digital economy.

Australia spent more than a decade building a multi-technology network. Billions are now being invested to replace copper connections that could have been avoided if fibre had been deployed more extensively from the beginning.

Broadband is essential infrastructure for business, education, health, government services, cloud computing and remote work. AI applications will place even greater demands on it.

While not every household needs gigabit speeds today, national infrastructure must be built for the services and economic activity of tomorrow. The closer the NBN moves towards its original fibre vision, the better it performs.

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The bottleneck moves into the home

However, the improved access network is revealing another problem.

A separate Opensignal analysis found that many households cannot fully benefit from faster NBN services because they still use older Wi-Fi routers.

Wi-Fi 6, 6E and 7 routers can deliver download speeds two to three times faster than older generations. Yet 64 per cent of Opensignal’s measurements across major providers came from routers using Wi-Fi 3, 4 or 5.

A household may therefore purchase a 500 Mbps or gigabit service without experiencing anything close to that speed on its devices. The bottleneck may be an ageing router, poor Wi-Fi coverage or the location of the equipment.

Opensignal concludes that router choice can have a greater effect on peak performance than the choice between major NBN providers.

Provider choice still matters. It affects reliability, backhaul capacity, customer support, congestion management and fault resolution. Nevertheless, once sufficient fibre capacity reaches the premises, the internal network becomes increasingly important.

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NBN watchdog closure signals that the broadband performance problems that prompted its creation have, by and large, been resolved.

Consumers cannot carry the responsibility alone

It would be wrong to treat this simply as a consumer problem.

Most people cannot reasonably be expected to understand Wi-Fi generations, router specifications, interference and mesh networks.

If retailers sell 500 Mbps and gigabit plans, they must ensure that the supplied equipment can make reasonable use of that capacity. They should also provide clear advice about router placement, household coverage and equipment upgrades.

NBN Co and the retailers could jointly develop a consumer information and router-replacement program. Providers should be able to identify older equipment and tell customers when it is restricting performance.

The NBN’s job is not complete. The fibre transition must continue, while regional differences, affordability and digital exclusion remain concerns.

Nevertheless, the Opensignal research marks an important turning point. For most of the NBN’s history, the principal constraint was the network connecting homes and businesses. Increasingly, that network can deliver the required capacity. The challenge is now ensuring consumers can use it.

The lesson is straightforward: fibre works. Australia should complete the transition while ensuring that the final few metres inside the home do not become the weakest link in a multibillion-dollar national network.

Paul Budde is an IA columnist and managing director of independent telecommunications research and consultancy, Paul Budde Consulting. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PaulBudde.