The short answer
What an NBN deal really sells you
Almost every "NBN deal" in Australia is the same trick wearing a different hat: a discount on the first six months, after which the plan quietly reverts to its full price. The headline number is real, but it is temporary, and you keep an internet connection for years, not months. So the deal that screams "$10 off for six months" might save you sixty dollars once, then charge you more every month for the rest of the time you stay. The figure that actually decides value is the ongoing price, the rate you pay after the promo ends, paired with the Typical Evening Speed the retailer publishes. This page explains why intro deals are structured the way they are, how to work out the true cost of a deal over the time you will really keep it, and how to tell a genuine saving from a customer-acquisition cost the telco will recoup the moment the discount lapses.
Here is the core takeaway in one line: nearly every NBN deal is an introductory discount that reverts after a few months, so the only number that decides long-term value is the ongoing price plus the Typical Evening Speed, not the headline first-term price. That single idea fixes the two things people get wrong: they pick the plan with the biggest intro discount and assume it is the cheapest (it often is not, once the revert price kicks in), and they treat the promo price as the price (it never is, beyond the first six months). Work out what you pay over the whole time you will keep the plan, then choose on the ongoing rate.
Reframe the assumption: the intro discount is not a gift, it is a customer-acquisition cost. The telco spends it once to win you, then recoups it through the higher ongoing price over the years you stay. A deal is only real if the price you pay in month seven is competitive on its own.
The blind spot
Why most "best NBN deals" lists steer you wrong
Most "best NBN deals" articles do one of three unhelpful things, and each one talks you into paying more than you think.
First, they rank deals by the size of the intro discount. The biggest "off for six months" headline tops the list, as if the saving lasted forever. It does not. A plan with a huge first-term discount can have the highest ongoing price on the page, so it wins the click and loses your money the moment the promo lapses.
Second, they quote the promo price as if it were the price. They list "$70 a month" without telling you that figure expires in six months and reverts to $95, because the smaller number sells the plan. The promo price is a teaser; the ongoing price is what you actually live with for years.
Third, they ignore the speed you will actually get. A cheap deal that congests at 8pm is no bargain, but most lists never mention the Typical Evening Speed, the published figure for the busy 7pm to 11pm window. A deal is only good if a competitive ongoing price meets an evening speed that holds up under load.
How an NBN deal is built, piece by piece
Expert analysis: what really decides the value of a deal
The discount is a customer-acquisition cost, not a saving
Start with why the deal exists. Winning a broadband customer is expensive: the retailer competes with every other telco for the same clicks, and a six-month discount is simply a cheaper way to win you than a sales commission would be. The retailer spends that discount once, as an acquisition cost, then earns it back through the higher ongoing price over the years you stay subscribed. Read this way, the deal is not generosity, it is an investment the telco makes in you that it fully expects to recoup, and usually does.
Internet has no price cap, so the ongoing price runs free
This is where the Australian context bites. In electricity, the Default Market Offer sets a regulated reference price that caps how high a standing offer can climb. Internet has no equivalent cap. Once your promo ends, the retailer can set whatever ongoing price it likes, and there is no regulator pulling it back. That is precisely why revert prices vary so wildly between retailers: nothing stops a telco pairing a generous intro discount with a steep ongoing rate, betting that you will not switch when the bill quietly jumps. The absence of a cap makes the ongoing price the only number protecting your wallet.
The retailer is also choosing your evening speed
Price is only half the deal. The NBN is a wholesale monopoly: NBN Co sells your retailer (an RSP, or Retail Service Provider, such as Telstra, Optus, Aussie Broadband, TPG, Tangerine or Superloop) an access charge for your speed tier plus a pool of shared bandwidth, called CVC, into each Point of Interconnect. How much of that shared bandwidth the retailer buys per customer decides whether your line holds its speed at peak. A cheap deal from a retailer that skimps on bandwidth congests every evening, which is why the Typical Evening Speed (TES), the speed published for the busy 7pm to 11pm hours, belongs in any honest comparison. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) runs Measuring Broadband Australia, which tests real homes and reports which retailers hold their speed at peak.
The 2025 speed upgrade changed what a "deal" is worth
One more factor reshapes the maths. From late 2025, NBN Co lifted the wholesale speeds on eligible Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and most Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) lines at no extra wholesale cost, pushing the Fast tier toward 500 Mbps, Superfast toward 750 Mbps and Ultrafast toward 2000 Mbps. A deal on one of those lines now buys far more speed for the same tier name, if your retailer passes the boost on. A Fibre to the Node (FTTN) line that runs the last stretch over copper gets none of it, so the same advertised deal is worth less at that address. Always read a deal against the connection technology you actually have.
Interactive explainer
The true-cost-of-a-deal calculator
Enter a deal's intro price, how long the discount lasts and the ongoing price it reverts to. The tool works out the effective monthly cost over 12 and 24 months, then compares it against a flat-price plan you enter, so you can see whether the "deal" actually wins.
Work out what a deal really costs over time
Indicative only. Always confirm the ongoing price and Typical Evening Speed on the actual plan before you sign up.
Effective cost of the deal
averaged over 24 months
The deal's effective monthly cost is the total you pay across the period (intro price for the promo months, ongoing price for the rest) divided by the number of months. We compare that 24-month figure against your flat plan to show which is cheaper if you keep the service two years.
Assumptions: the ongoing price applies automatically once the promo ends, with no further changes, and excludes setup or modem fees. Prices are whatever you enter. Sources for the worked examples below: NBN Co wholesale pricing, ACCC Measuring Broadband Australia, Canstar Blue 2026.
| Deal | Intro price | Ongoing price | Effective $/mo over 24 months | What it really means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Big discount" NBN 100 | $70 for 6 months | $95 ongoing | $88.75 | A large headline discount that reverts to a high ongoing price; cheap to start, dear to keep. |
| "Modest discount" NBN 100 | $80 for 6 months | $85 ongoing | $83.75 | A smaller intro saving but a lower revert price; works out cheaper if you stay past a year. |
| Flat-price NBN 100 | $85 every month | $85 ongoing | $85.00 | No promo at all; the honest baseline against which any "deal" should be measured. |
| "Six free months" gimmick | $0 for 6 months | $99 ongoing | $74.25 | A huge first-term saving, but the high revert price erodes it fast the longer you stay. |
What this looks like in real homes
How the intro-deal trap plays out for real households
The maths above is not theory. It is exactly how Australian households end up paying more for the plan that looked cheaper:
The "biggest discount" that cost the most
A household picks the deal with the largest headline saving, $70 a month against a flat plan at $85. It feels like a clear win. Six months later it reverts to $95, and over two years it averages nearly $89 a month, more than the plain plan it beat on day one. The discount was real; it was just the smallest part of what they paid.
The promo nobody remembered to leave
A renter signs up on a six-month deal, fully meaning to switch when it ends. The bill quietly jumps, no reminder arrives, and a year later they are still paying the full ongoing price. The telco recouped its acquisition cost many times over, exactly as the pricing was designed to do.
The cheap deal that crawled at 8pm
A share house chases the lowest ongoing price and lands with a retailer that skimps on shared bandwidth. The price held up; the evening speed did not, stuttering every night when the suburb came home. The published Typical Evening Speed had quietly warned them all along.
The flat plan that quietly won
A couple ignores the promos and takes a plain flat-price plan with a strong evening speed. No discount, no revert shock, no diary reminder. Over the years they keep it, they pay less than the neighbours who chased every "deal", because there was nothing to revert.
The insider insight
The discount is bait, the ongoing price is the hook
Here is the part most deals coverage never says out loud. A telco does not lose money on a six-month discount; it prices it in. The discount is the bait that wins the click, and the ongoing price is the hook that earns it all back, because the industry knows that most customers never switch once the promo lapses. With no price cap on internet to rein the revert price in, the spread between a deal that is genuinely cheap and one that just looks cheap is wide, and it all lives in a number the advertising works hard to keep small. The retailers selling the best long-term value are often the ones with the dullest headline, because their ongoing price is already low enough that they do not need a flashy promo to win you.
The non-obvious truth: on an NBN deal you are really being quoted two prices, a temporary one and a permanent one, and only the permanent one decides what you pay over the life of the plan. The households that get the best value ignore the intro headline, compare the ongoing price against a flat plan over the time they will actually stay, and check the Typical Evening Speed before they sign. Because there is no DMO-style cap on internet, the discount you are shown matters far less than the revert price you are not.
The practical consequence: never judge an NBN deal on the promo price alone. Two deals with identical headlines can cost very different amounts over two years, and the ongoing price is the figure that tells them apart.
Grounded in the analysis
What you should actually do when an NBN deal tempts you
Specific moves that follow from how deals are priced, not generic advice.
Find the ongoing price first
Before anything else, dig the ongoing (revert) price out of the fine print and treat that as the real price. Run it through the calculator above against a flat-price plan over the time you expect to stay. If the deal does not beat the flat plan over 24 months, the discount is bait.
Check the evening speed and your tech
Compare the Typical Evening Speed, not the headline maximum, and lean on the ACCC Measuring Broadband Australia results. Check your connection type too: FTTP or HFC may carry the 2025 speed boost on the same tier, while FTTN copper will not.
Diary the day the promo ends
The trap is forgetting. Set a reminder for the month your discount lapses, because most plans are month to month with no lock-in. When the promo ends, switch to a fresh deal or a cheaper flat plan with no new install, and you beat the revert price the telco was counting on.
New to how the tiers work? Read our guide to NBN plans, then run our internet speed test to see what you are actually getting now.
Current figures, last updated 2026-06-16
Indicative Australian NBN deal figures for 2026. Sources: NBN Co wholesale pricing, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Measuring Broadband Australia programme, and Canstar Blue 2026. Prices, discount windows and evening speeds vary widely by retailer and by the connection technology at your address.
The bottom line
Why the intro price is the start of the decision, not the end
An NBN deal's headline discount tells you what you will pay for a few months, and that is genuinely worth a little. But you keep an internet connection for years, and the discount is a customer-acquisition cost the telco recoups through the higher ongoing price the moment the promo lapses. So dig out the ongoing price, run it over the time you will really stay, compare it against a plain flat plan, and confirm the Typical Evening Speed holds at peak. With NBN Co's 2025 upgrade now reshaping what a tier is worth and no price cap on internet to rein in the laggards, the gap between a deal that is genuinely cheap and one that just looks cheap has only widened into 2026.
Common questions
A Selectra expert answers your NBN deal questions
Sometimes, but far less often than the headline suggests. Most NBN deals discount only the first six months, then revert to the full ongoing price, and because you keep an internet connection for years, that one-off saving is spread thin across the time you actually stay. A deal is genuinely worth it when the ongoing price (the rate after the promo ends) is competitive on its own, and the Typical Evening Speed holds up at peak. If the ongoing price is high, the intro discount is just bait, and you will pay it back and then some over the life of the plan. Always judge the deal by what you pay in month seven, not month one.
The intro price is the discounted rate you pay for a promotional window, usually the first six months. The ongoing price (sometimes called the revert price) is the full rate that kicks in automatically once that window ends, with no action or notice required from you. Retailers advertise the intro price in big numbers and bury the ongoing price in the fine print, because the intro price wins the click while the ongoing price is what you actually live with. For a service you keep for years, the ongoing price is the number that decides value.
Because winning a customer is expensive, and a six-month discount is cheaper than a sales commission. The discount is a customer-acquisition cost: the retailer spends it once to get you onto the network, then recoups it through the higher ongoing price over the years you stay. It works because most people never switch after the promo lapses, so the telco quietly earns back the discount many times over. Understanding the deal as an acquisition cost, not a gift, is the key to reading it correctly.
Work out the effective monthly cost over the time you realistically expect to keep the plan, not just the promo window. Multiply the intro price by the number of discounted months, add the ongoing price for the remaining months in your horizon, then divide by the total months. A deal with a big intro discount but a high revert price often loses to a plain flat-price plan once you pass a year. Then compare the Typical Evening Speed alongside it, because a cheap plan that congests at 8pm is no bargain.
No. Electricity has the Default Market Offer, a regulated reference price that limits how high standing offers can go. Internet has no equivalent price cap, so retailers are free to set any ongoing price they like once the promo ends. That is exactly why revert prices vary so widely between retailers and why the spread between a sharp deal and a poor one is wider than most people assume. With no cap to rein them in, the ongoing price is the only thing protecting your wallet, so it is the number to scrutinise.
Yes, and you should consider it. Most NBN plans are now month to month with no lock-in, so when your intro discount lapses you can move to a fresh deal or a cheaper flat-price plan without any new cabling or installation. The physical NBN connection at your address stays the same; you are only changing who bills you. Setting a reminder for the month your promo ends is the single most effective way to beat the revert-price trap, because the telco is counting on you not to bother.
