Skip to main content Tom's Guide Tom's Guide Search Tom's Guide View Profile Newsletters Best Picks Entertainment Prime Day Deals Switch 2 Restock Walmart 4th of July Sale Galaxy Z Fold 7 Best Mattress Best laptops Wordle Today Recommended reading T-Mobile just launched fiber internet — here's the prices and speeds you can get Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 router review: dual-band Wi-Fi 7 with top-flight wired performance Network Carriers T-Mobile offers new 5-year price lock plans — but it's dropped my favorite family plan option I thought speed tests were the be-all and end-all way to measure my internet connection until I tried Orb Best Wi-Fi 7 routers of 2025: The future of Wi-Fi is here The best Usenet providers in 2025 Asus RP-AX58 review Preferred Partner Exetel just gazumped NBN Co, dropping a great-value NBN 500 plan way ahead of schedule Lucy Scotting 7 July 2025 Get the speed boost early with Exetel's One Plan When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Pexels) New NBN tiers are set to propel internet speeds across Australia to new highs within a matter of months, including what will become the new entry-level fast tier, NBN 500. But one provider has decided it's not willing to wait for NBN Co to officially roll out the speed upgrades, and has debuted a new turbocharged plan 2 months early. It's also made the shock decision to discontinue all its previous NBN plans in place of this new, single, Goliath-sized option. Taking a massive leap ahead of NBN Co's upgrade timeline, Exetel has launched its Exetel One plan, which promises 500Mbps typical evening speeds (TES) for just AU$80p/m. The well-regarded provider has also bid adieu to its other NBN and internet plans to focus solely on the One (and only) plan. We've recommended a range of Exetel's NBN and mobile plans over the years on Tom's Guide, and this latest move looks like a canny one. Exetel previously offered internet connections between NBN 25 and NBN 250, and the Superloop-owned telco prominently featured on our best NBN plan pages for its great customer service, attractive deal pricing and low ongoing fees. According to the latest ACCC report, Exetel continues to exceed its stated speeds, hitting an impressive 104.5% of its advertised plan speeds during all hours of the day, outperforming both TPG and Optus and falling just 0.6% behind Telstra. With those results in mind, there's no doubt that Exetel can deliver — or perhaps, overdeliver — with this new 500Mbps offering. Exetel is a Tom’s Guide preferred partner (What does this mean?) Exetel One plan | NBN 500 | AU$80p/m ongoing Exetel's One plan (a.k.a. its only plan as of 1 July) advertises massive speeds of 500Mbps download and 40Mbps upload during typical evening hours. That's a strong promise, although real-world speeds may still vary due to factors outside Exetel's control, such as the speed of the internet servers that send the content to end users. However, if you're a heavy internet user, gamer or streamer, Exetel's plan should offer plenty of download bandwidth and no interruptions. Typically, introductory offers are the factor that prompt us to recommend one NBN plan over another. But being the first NBN 500 plan to market, that lack of a discount doesn't raise any alarm bells, as the low ongoing rate undercuts most NBN 100 plans for five times to speed, and still comes in at a total yearly cost under AU$1,000. The only caveat is that you'll need a fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coax (HFC) connection type to order this plan, as other NBN technologies simply aren't equipped to handle the speeds. Total minimum cost: AU$80 | Total yearly cost: AU$960 Connection, pricing and availability As a first-of-its-kind offering, it's hard to talk too deeply about pricing here as there aren't any real competitors offering similar plans. However, when compared to NBN 100 plan prices right now, which average just over AU$93p/m, Exetel's 500Mbps offering has them beat at AU$80p/m — and with 5x maximum speeds. To take full advantage of Exetel's superior plan, you'll need to have a fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connection at home. Unfortunately, the telco has confirmed, at least for now, that new customers cannot yet access NBN's free fibre rollout in combination with this plan. If you're already an Exetel customer who has an FTTP or HFC connection, you can however migrate to the One plan via the Exetel app. It's also worth pointing out that Exetel's plan is fairly no frills – it's strictly supplying the NBN service only – no hardware. If you need an unlocked, plug-and-play modem-router, we currently recommend an Amazon Eero 7 router for AU$299.99, which is capable of up to 5,000Mbps throughput and supports 120+ connected devices, making it well suited for an NBN 500 connection. Cost-saving new features Alongside its one ginormous speed tier, Exetel has introduced some smart and useful features for new and existing customers, giving users ways to save on their monthly bill or briefly boost their plan speed for a small fee. The latter is effectively an upgrade of Exetel's previous 'Speed Boost' tool, which has been re-christened 'Warp Speed'. This allows those on the One plan to optionally boost their downloads from 500Mbps to a typical evening speed figure of 811Mbps (and the possibility of even faster) for a flat fee of AU$1 per day. Alternatively, if you're heading on holiday sometime soon and won't be using your home connection for a while, Exetel has a perk just for you. The new 'Hibernate' mode will temporarily drop your speeds down to just 12Mbps and save you AU$1 per day off your monthly fee. There's no limit on how long you can use Hibernate for, so if you're away for a month, you could save up to AU$31. Both Warp Speed and Hibernate can be activated or deactivated via the Exetel app. And, if your mates come over and are envious of your supercharged speeds, Exetel's new friend-referral program could save you both AU$1 off your plan each month for as long as you both remain connected. Like Hibernate, there's no limit to how many friends you can refer, and the discount is stackable, so in theory, if you have 80 friends, you could get your 500Mbps internet plan for free… just make sure your friends are real, though; imaginary ones won't help you here. So if you're eager to get a head start on a new NBN 500 plan, Exetel's One plan is hard to beat. Sign up to get the BEST of Tom's Guide direct to your inbox. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. See more Computing Deals Lucy Scotting Social Links Navigation Staff Writer Lucy Scotting is a digital content writer for Tom’s Guide in Australia, primarily covering NBN and internet-related news. Lucy started her career writing for HR and staffing industry publications, with articles covering emerging tech, business and finance. In her spare time, Lucy can be found watching sci-fi movies, working on her dystopian fiction novel or hanging out with her dog, Fletcher. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. 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