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.
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
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 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.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
