The short answer
What "no contract" really buys you in 2026
No-contract broadband is sold as a feature, as if month-to-month freedom were a perk you are lucky to find. In Australia in 2026 it is the default: the great majority of NBN and home wireless plans already carry no lock-in contract, so a retailer advertising "no contract" is mostly marketing what is already standard. The cost of switching did not disappear when the old 24-month contracts faded, it changed shape. It moved into the up-front setup fee a retailer charges to connect you, and far more often into the modem: a "free" or discounted router you are quietly repaying over 24 or 36 months, with the balance falling due the moment you leave. So the real lock-in today is the hardware, not the contract, and the genuine way to stay flexible is to bring your own modem and watch the price your plan reverts to after any introductory discount ends.
Here is the core takeaway in one line: no-contract broadband is now the Australian default, not a premium feature, so the question is not whether a plan has a contract but what it actually costs you to leave, and that cost has moved from old exit fees into the modem you are repaying and the setup fee you avoided. That single idea fixes the two things people get wrong: they treat "no lock-in" as a rare selling point worth paying for (it is standard), and they assume no contract means nothing to pay when they switch (a bundled modem balance and an early-exit setup fee say otherwise). Compare plans on the true exit cost and the revert price, not the no-contract badge.
Reframe the assumption: the contract clause did not vanish, it changed costume. The lock-in now wears a modem repayment and a conditional setup fee. The only position that is genuinely free to leave is bringing your own modem, because there is no balance left to settle when you go.
The blind spot
Why most no-contract guides miss the point
Most "best no-contract broadband" articles do one of three unhelpful things, and each one leaves you exposed to a cost the headline never mentions.
First, they treat no-contract as a feature to chase. They rank plans by whether they advertise "no lock-in" and crown the ones that shout loudest, as if a contract were still the norm. It is not. Almost every plan is month to month now, so a no-contract badge tells you nothing useful and distracts from the costs that do differ.
Second, they ignore the modem. A guide will call a plan free to leave because it has no contract, while the "free" router it bundles is a 24 or 36-month repayment that falls due the instant you switch. The lock-in is sitting in plain sight on the critical information summary, just under a different name, and the article never reads it.
Third, they quote the intro price as the price. They line up the cheap first-year teaser and stop there, ignoring the revert price the plan climbs to once the discount ends. On a no-contract plan you are free to leave when it does, but most people do not notice, so the "cheap" plan quietly becomes a dearer one. The number that matters is the ongoing rate plus the cost to walk away, not the badge or the teaser.
How the no-contract market is built, piece by piece
Expert analysis: where the lock-in actually went
The contract disappeared because the market made it pointless
No-contract broadband became the norm for a structural reason, not out of generosity. The NBN is a wholesale network: NBN Co owns the lines and sells access to retailers (the industry calls them RSPs, or Retail Service Providers) such as Telstra, Optus, Aussie Broadband, TPG, Superloop, Tangerine and dozens of smaller telcos. Because the physical connection at your address does not change when you switch retailers, there is almost no cost to a provider in letting you go, and locking you in with a long contract mostly drove customers to rivals who did not. So the contract faded. What did not fade is each retailer's cost of winning you in the first place, and that cost had to land somewhere.
It landed on the modem, billed as a repayment
The most common place the cost now sits is the router. A "free" modem is rarely free; it is a device worth roughly $150 to $300 that the retailer bills at $0 up front and recovers over a 24 or 36-month repayment baked into your plan. Stay the full term and you have paid for it in instalments. Leave early and the unpaid balance falls due at once, often $120 to $300. That is a lock-in in everything but name: you are free to cancel the service, but not free of the hardware debt. A discounted modem works the same way with a smaller balance, and a modem you own outright has none.
The setup fee is the other half of the bait and hook
The second place the cost hides is the connection or setup fee. Many no-contract plans advertise $0 setup, then add a condition: the fee is waived only if you stay a minimum number of months, and charged in full, often $79 to $99, if you leave before then. It is a contract penalty wearing a different label. The honest way to read any plan is to find the setup fee and the modem terms on the critical information summary, because together they are the real cost of the flexibility the headline gives away for free.
No price cap, so the revert price is the long game
The last structural piece is that internet, unlike electricity with its Default Market Offer, has no regulated price cap. There is no backstop rate, so retailers lean hard on introductory discounts: a low price for 6 or 12 months that reverts to a higher ongoing rate afterwards. On a no-contract plan you can leave the day it reverts, which is exactly why the discounts exist, they assume you will not. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the ACCC) and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) both stress reading the ongoing price, not the teaser, because without a cap the gap between the two is entirely up to the retailer.
Interactive explainer
What is my real exit cost?
A "no-contract" plan can still cost you money to leave. Enter any modem repayment you have left and any setup or disconnection fee, and this works out the true cost to walk away today, the number the no-lock-in badge never shows you.
Your true cost to walk away today
Indicative only. Always confirm the exact modem balance and fees on your plan's critical information summary.
Anything else owing?
True cost to leave today
We spread the modem price evenly across its repayment term, count the months you have left, and add any setup fee that is clawed back for leaving early plus a disconnection charge. Bringing your own modem zeroes the largest line, which is why it is the only truly no-lock-in position.
Assumptions: modem repaid in equal monthly instalments; disconnection fee taken as about $30 where ticked; figures are indicative 2026 ranges and vary by retailer. Sources: ACCC, retailer critical information summaries, Canstar Blue 2026.
| Cost component | Indicative amount | What it is and when it bites |
|---|---|---|
| Old 24-month exit fee | Gone on most plans | Once $200 to $300 to break a locked contract; now rare, because almost every plan is month to month. |
| Connection / setup fee | $0 to $99 | A one-off charge to provision your line. Often waived if you stay a minimum term, charged in full if you leave early. |
| "Free" modem payout | $120 to $300 | A bundled router billed at $0 up front but repaid over 24 to 36 months. Leave early and the remaining balance falls due at once. |
| Discounted modem balance | $60 to $200 | A subsidised router with a smaller payout, still owing if you go before the term ends. |
| BYO modem (your own) | $0 | Bring a compatible modem you already own and there is nothing to pay out, which is the real no-lock-in position. |
What this looks like in real homes
How the hidden lock-in plays out for real households
The mechanics above are not theory. They are exactly how Australian households end up paying for flexibility they thought was free:
The "free" modem that cost $200 to leave
A renter signs up to a no-contract plan with a free router, then moves house eight months later and switches to a faster provider. The plan was genuinely no-contract, but the bundled modem was on a 24-month repayment, so the unpaid balance, around $200, landed on the final bill. The contract was gone; the hardware debt was not.
The setup fee that came back on exit
A household joins a plan advertising $0 setup, attracted by a sharp first-month price. They cancel after two months when a better deal appears, and the waived $99 setup fee is charged in full because they did not stay the minimum term. The "free" setup was conditional all along.
The discount that quietly doubled the gap
A couple takes a plan at a cheap intro rate and forgets it. After the discount ends at month seven the price reverts upward by $15 a month, and because nothing forces a review they keep paying the higher rate for a year. No contract held them; inertia did, and with no price cap on internet nothing reined the revert price in.
The BYO modem that switched for nothing
A household that bought its own modem outright moves between three retailers in two years, chasing the best ongoing price. Each switch costs nothing because there is no hardware balance and no setup claw-back. They are the only one of these households genuinely living the no-lock-in promise.
The insider insight
"No contract" is marketing; the modem is the contract
Here is the part most no-contract guides never say out loud. Advertising "no lock-in" in 2026 is like advertising a fridge that gets cold: it sells the standard as if it were special. The interesting question was never the contract, which the market killed off years ago. It is where the retailer relocated the cost of acquiring you, and the answer is almost always the hardware. A bundled modem on a repayment is a fixed-term commitment with the word "contract" carefully removed, and a conditional setup fee is an exit penalty in disguise. The badge points your attention at the one thing that no longer differs between plans, so you do not look at the things that do.
The non-obvious truth: on a "no-contract" plan you are still tied to the modem repayment and the conditional setup fee, and only owning your modem outright cuts the tie completely. The households that get the best value ignore the no-lock-in badge entirely, bring their own modem, and compare plans on the ongoing revert price plus the true cost to walk away. Because internet has no price cap, the gap between a sharp choice and a lazy one is wider than the badge would ever let on.
The practical consequence: never pick a plan because it says "no contract", and never assume that means nothing to pay when you leave. Read the modem terms and the setup fee, then compare on the cost to walk away.
Grounded in the analysis
What you should actually do with a no-contract plan
Specific moves that follow from where the lock-in really lives, not generic advice.
Bring your own modem if you can
A modem you own outright removes the biggest hidden exit cost, because there is no repayment balance to settle when you switch. Check it supports your connection technology before you rely on it, since an old ADSL modem will not run an NBN line.
Find the real exit cost before you join
On the critical information summary, read the modem terms and the setup fee, not the no-contract badge. Use the calculator above to total the modem balance and any clawed-back setup fee so you know your true cost to walk away.
Compare on the revert price, not the teaser
Internet has no price cap, so the cheap intro rate is bait. Note the ongoing price after the discount ends, set a reminder for that date, and because plans are month to month, switch the moment a better ongoing rate appears.
New to how the network is priced? Start with our NBN plans guide, then check whether home wireless broadband suits a short-term or rental setup.
Current figures, last updated 2026-06-16
Indicative Australian no-contract broadband figures for 2026. Sources: the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), retailer critical information summaries, and Canstar Blue 2026. Figures vary widely by retailer, plan and the modem terms you accept.
The bottom line
Why the no-contract badge is the wrong thing to compare
No-contract broadband is worth having, but it is no longer worth choosing a plan for, because almost every plan already has it. The cost of leaving did not vanish with the old 24-month contracts, it migrated into the modem repayment and the conditional setup fee, where a "no-lock-in" plan can still cost you $120 to $300 to walk away. So ignore the badge: bring your own modem if you can, read the modem and setup terms to find your true exit cost, and compare plans on the revert price rather than the intro teaser. With no price cap on internet to rein in the laggards, the households that look past the marketing and at the real cost to leave are the ones that actually keep the flexibility no-contract was supposed to promise.
Common questions
A Selectra expert answers your no-contract broadband questions
Not really, and that is the honest answer. In Australia the large majority of NBN and home wireless plans are already month to month with no lock-in contract, so "no contract" describes the default rather than a rare feature. The old 24-month contracts with $200 to $300 exit fees have mostly disappeared. What you should actually compare is not whether a plan has a contract, but what it costs you to leave: the setup fee and, above all, any modem you are still repaying. The flexibility is real, but it is the standard, not a selling point.
It moved into the hardware and the fees. When retailers dropped fixed-term contracts they did not give away the cost of acquiring you, they shifted it. A "free" modem is usually a router billed at $0 up front but repaid over 24 or 36 months, with the unpaid balance falling due if you leave early. A setup fee that is waived only if you stay a minimum term works the same way. So a plan can be genuinely no-contract and still cost you $120 to $300 to walk away, because the lock-in now lives in the modem repayment, not in a contract clause.
If you already own a compatible modem, yes, almost always. Bringing your own modem removes the single biggest hidden exit cost on a "no-contract" plan, because there is no repayment balance to settle if you switch. It is the only position that is truly free to leave. The two things to check are that your modem supports your connection technology (an old ADSL modem will not run an NBN line, and some retailers only fully support their own hardware) and that you are comfortable setting it up, since BYO plans rarely include phone support for third-party gear.
The revert price is what your plan costs each month after any introductory discount ends, usually after the first 6 or 12 months. On a no-contract plan you are free to leave the day the discount stops, but most people do not notice it has, so the cheap headline quietly becomes a dearer ongoing rate. Because there is no price cap on internet, the gap between the intro price and the revert price can be $10 to $20 a month. The discount is the bait; the revert price is what you actually pay, so compare plans on the ongoing rate, not the first-year teaser.
In almost all cases, yes. The physical NBN connection at your address stays in place; switching just changes who bills you. There is no new cabling or install for a standard NBN-to-NBN move, and most plans are month to month, so you can leave whenever you like. The only thing that can cost you is hardware: if you took a bundled modem on a repayment, the balance falls due when you go. Settle that, or use a modem you own outright, and a switch is effectively free.
Sometimes, but do the sum over how long you actually expect to stay. A plan with a one-off setup fee but a lower ongoing price can beat a no-setup plan if you keep it a year or more, because the monthly saving outpaces the up-front cost. The trap is paying a setup fee on a plan you abandon in a couple of months chasing the next discount, where the fee never pays for itself. Weigh the setup fee and any modem payout against the monthly saving and your likely stay, not against the headline price alone.
