The short answer
What an EOFY internet deal really is
Every June, telcos roll out "EOFY internet deals", and the headline is always the same: a fat discount for the first six months. It feels like a once-a-year saving you would be silly to miss. But internet is a recurring monthly service, not a one-off purchase, so the number that decides what you actually pay is not the intro price on the banner, it is the revert price that quietly kicks in once the promo ends. A plan with a deep six-month discount that snaps back to $95 a month can easily cost you more over a full year than a plain plan that sits at $75 every single month. This page explains why EOFY broadband "sales" are timed to the June churn season, how to work out the real annualised cost of a deal, and why the smart move is to treat EOFY as the cheapest moment to switch, not as a saving in itself.
Here is the core takeaway in one line: an EOFY internet deal is a first-term discount timed to the June churn season, not a once-a-year saving, and the only honest way to compare offers is the annualised cost, which is the promo months at the discounted rate plus the remaining months at the revert price, divided by twelve. That single idea fixes the two mistakes people make: they fixate on the deep intro price and ignore the revert price they will pay for most of the year, and they assume EOFY itself saves money when its real value is structural, lots of competing offers and no lock-in, which makes June the cheapest moment to switch.
Reframe the assumption: the EOFY badge is a switching prompt, not a discount you are missing out on. Internet is a recurring bill, so a six-month $80 a month deal that reverts to $95 a month can lose to a plain $75 a month plan over twelve months. Do the annualised maths and you are comparing what you will actually pay, not the banner.
The blind spot
Why most EOFY deal round-ups steer you wrong
Most "best EOFY internet deals" articles do one of three unhelpful things, and each one nudges you toward a deal that looks sharp in June and stings by Christmas.
First, they rank deals by the size of the discount. The biggest "save $90" or "first month for $1" headline tops the list, as if a deeper intro cut were automatically better value. It is not. A huge first-month saving worth a single $90 is meaningless if the plan then sits above the market for the other eleven months.
Second, they quote the intro price and never mention the revert price. You see "$80 a month for six months" in bold and the "then $95 a month" in small print, or not at all. Yet the revert price is the rate you pay for the majority of the year, so leaving it out is leaving out the part that actually decides the cost.
Third, they treat the EOFY badge as proof of a bargain. Because the offers cluster in June, round-ups imply you must buy now or miss out. But internet has no price cap and most plans are month to month, so competitive pricing runs all year and a plain plan with a low steady rate is often the quiet winner. The EOFY badge tells you when retailers compete hardest, not whether any single deal is good.
How the June broadband sale is built, piece by piece
Expert analysis: what an EOFY deal is really doing
EOFY is a churn window, and the discount is an acquisition cost
The Australian broadband market is a retail layer of dozens of providers (the industry calls them RSPs) such as Telstra, Optus, Aussie Broadband, TPG, Tangerine, Superloop and Mate, all reselling the same NBN. They compete almost entirely on price and service, not on the network itself, so their main lever is winning customers off each other. June, the end of the financial year, is when consumers are already primed to shop, which makes it the cheapest month to buy attention. The "EOFY deal" is really an acquisition cost: a retailer spends a few months of discount to land a customer it expects to keep paying the full revert price for years.
The discount is front-loaded, the revert price is forever
This is the part that decides everything. The classic EOFY shape is a discount for the first six months, then the standard ongoing rate from month seven. Because the discount is finite and the revert price is open-ended, almost all of your lifetime spend on the plan happens at the revert rate. A retailer can therefore advertise a striking intro price while keeping its ongoing price high, and still come out ahead. The honest comparison is not intro versus intro, it is annualised cost versus annualised cost: discounted months plus revert months, divided by twelve.
There is no price cap on internet, so the spread is wide
Electricity has a regulated safety net, the Default Market Offer, that limits how high a standing price can drift. Internet has nothing of the kind. No regulator sets a ceiling on an NBN revert price, so two plans on the same speed tier can revert to very different numbers, and the gap between a sharp plan and a dressed-up one is entirely on the buyer to spot. That absence of a cap is exactly why the revert price matters so much: there is no backstop catching you if you stop paying attention when the promo ends.
Month-to-month contracts make EOFY a switching window, not a trap
The redeeming feature is structural. Almost every NBN plan is now month to month with no lock-in, a shift the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) has long encouraged, and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (the TIO) handles disputes if a switch goes wrong. That means the worst case of a bad EOFY deal is bounded: when the discount ends and the revert price bites, you can simply compare again and move. June concentrates the most competing offers into one window, so the right way to use EOFY is as the lowest-risk moment to switch, then to switch again whenever the maths stops working.
Interactive explainer
EOFY deal payback calculator
Enter an EOFY deal's intro price, how many months it lasts and its revert price, then a plain year-round plan's price. It works out the real twelve-month cost of each and tells you which one actually wins, the saving you are really getting and how much the deal hides in its revert price.
Does the EOFY deal beat a plain plan over a year?
Indicative only. Always confirm the intro term and revert price in the plan's critical information summary before you sign up.
The EOFY deal
The plain year-round plan
Over 12 months, the winner is
Assumptions: a 12-month horizon, intro price for the intro months then the revert price for the rest of the year, against a plain plan charged at the same steady rate all twelve months. Setup fees, hardware and bundled perks are not counted. Figures are indicative; always read the plan's critical information summary. Sources: published retailer promo structures, ACCC, Canstar Blue 2026.
| Plan | Months 1 to 6 | Months 7 to 12 | 12-month total | True average/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EOFY deal | $80/mo | $95/mo | $1,050 | $87.50/mo |
| Plain year-round plan | $75/mo | $75/mo | $900 | $75/mo |
| Difference | The deal looks $5 cheaper for six months | The deal is $20 dearer for six months | $150 dearer | $12.50/mo more |
What this looks like in real homes
How the EOFY trap plays out for real households
The maths above is not theory. It is exactly how Australian households end up paying more in the name of a "deal":
The deep discount that reverts high
A renter grabs an EOFY plan at $80 a month for six months, feeling clever about the saving. From month seven it quietly reverts to $95 a month. Over the year they pay around $1,050, while a neighbour on a plain $75 a month plan pays $900. The "deal" cost $150 more, and nobody told them, because the revert price was never the headline.
The $1 first month that changed nothing
A household signs up for a "first month for $1" EOFY offer, thrilled. That single month saves them roughly $90 once, then the plan charges its ordinary, not especially cheap, ongoing rate for the next eleven months. The headline was huge; the annual difference was tiny.
The streaming freebie that masked the price
A couple picks the EOFY plan that throws in a few months of free streaming. They already pay for that streaming service, so it is genuine value, but it distracted them from the plan's ongoing price, which was higher than two rivals without the perk. They bought the bundle and overpaid on the part that recurs forever.
The switcher who used EOFY properly
A family treats June not as a sale but as a deadline to compare. They run the annualised maths on three offers, ignore the one with the flashiest intro and pick the plan with the lowest twelve-month cost at a Typical Evening Speed they trust. Because it is month to month, they set a reminder to compare again next June. That is EOFY used as a switching window, not a saving.
The insider insight
The EOFY discount is bait for the revert price
Here is the part most EOFY round-ups never say out loud. A retailer does not give you six months off out of generosity; it is buying a customer it expects to keep on the full revert price for years. The intro discount is an acquisition cost, and the revert price is where the retailer makes its money back and then some. That is why the discount is loud and the revert price is quiet: the loud number wins the signup, and the quiet one collects the margin once you have stopped shopping. Reading the revert price is reading the actual offer.
The non-obvious truth: on a recurring service like internet, a discount is only ever as good as the price it reverts to, and the EOFY badge buys you nothing the rest of the year cannot. The households that come out ahead treat June as the moment competition is fiercest and switching risk is lowest, compare on annualised cost, and move again the instant a better twelve-month number appears. Because there is no price cap, the laggards are never reined in, so the discipline of comparing is the only thing protecting you.
The practical consequence: never judge an EOFY deal by the discount alone. The intro price wins your attention, but the revert price wins your wallet, and only the annualised cost tells you who actually won.
Grounded in the analysis
What you should actually do with an EOFY internet deal
Specific moves that follow from how EOFY deals are built, not generic advice.
Annualise before you sign
Ignore the intro headline. Multiply the intro price by its months, add the revert price for the rest of the year, divide by twelve, and compare that true average against a plain plan. Use the calculator above so the revert price cannot hide.
Hunt for the revert price
It lives in the critical information summary, often in small print as "then $X a month". If a deal will not show it clearly, treat that as a red flag and move on. A deal you cannot annualise is a deal you cannot trust.
Use EOFY to switch, then switch again
Treat June as the lowest-risk window to move, not a saving in itself. Most plans are month to month, so pick the lowest twelve-month cost at an evening speed you trust, then set a reminder to compare again when the discount ends.
New to how NBN pricing works? Start with our guide to NBN plans and speed tiers, then run an internet speed test before you switch.
Current figures, last updated 2026-06-16
Indicative Australian EOFY broadband figures for 2025 and 2026. Sources: published retailer promo structures, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Canstar Blue 2026. Promotions change frequently and vary by retailer; always read the plan's critical information summary.
The bottom line
Why EOFY is a switching window, not a saving
An EOFY internet deal is a first-term discount built to win your signup, after which you pay the revert price for as long as you stay. Because broadband is a recurring service with no price cap, the only number that tells you whether a deal is genuinely good is the annualised cost: the discounted months plus the revert months, divided by twelve, compared against a plain plan that is simply cheaper all year. The real gift of June is not the discount, it is the combination of fierce competition and month-to-month freedom that makes it the cheapest, lowest-risk moment to switch. Use EOFY to move, read the revert price, do the annualised maths, and then move again whenever the numbers say so. That, not the badge, is where the saving lives.
Common questions
A Selectra expert answers your EOFY internet questions
Sometimes, but not for the reason the marketing suggests. An EOFY internet deal is almost always a first-term discount, usually $10 to $15 a month off for the first six months, that then reverts to the full ongoing price. Because broadband is a recurring service, the saving you care about is the annualised cost: the promo months plus the revert months, divided by 12. A deal is only worth it if that annualised figure beats a plain plan that is simply cheaper all year. Plenty of EOFY "deals" lose to a no-frills plan once the discount runs out, so always read the revert price before you sign.
The revert price is the ongoing monthly rate your plan jumps to once the introductory discount period ends. On an EOFY deal that is "$80 a month for six months", the revert price might be $95 a month from month seven onward. It is the single most important number on the offer, because you will pay it for far longer than the discount lasts. A deep intro discount with a high revert price can quietly cost you more over a year than a plan with no discount at all but a lower steady rate.
EOFY in June is genuinely a strong time, but for a structural reason rather than a pricing one. June is the churn season, when the most retailers run competing offers at once, and almost every NBN plan is now month to month with no lock-in. That combination means you have the widest choice and the lowest switching risk, so you can move to a better plan and leave again if it disappoints. The deals themselves are mostly first-term discounts; the real advantage of switching in June is choice and freedom to move, not the discount badge.
Put both on the same 12-month basis. For each plan, multiply the intro price by the number of discounted months, add the revert price multiplied by the remaining months, then divide by 12 to get the true average monthly cost. Compare that figure, not the headline intro price. Then sanity-check the Typical Evening Speed so you are not buying a cheap annual cost on a plan that congests at peak. The deal with the lowest real annualised cost at an evening speed you can live with is the winner, regardless of which one shouts EOFY loudest.
Yes, that is exactly how most EOFY deals are built. The discount is time-limited, typically six months, and at the end your plan moves to its standard ongoing rate with no further action from you. There is no default-offer price cap on internet the way electricity has the DMO, so the revert price is whatever the retailer sets. The good news is that most plans are month to month, so when the discount ends you are free to compare again and switch, which is why June every year sees a fresh wave of switchers.
No. Because there is no price cap and most plans are contract-free, competitive offers run all year, and a plain plan with a low steady price can beat a flashy EOFY deal at any time. EOFY simply concentrates more competing offers into one window, which makes it a convenient time to compare. The discipline is the same in June as in any other month: work out the annualised cost, check the revert price and the evening speed, and switch when the maths says so rather than when the calendar says EOFY.
