Vodafone has dropped the price of all its NBN plans, from NBN 25 right up to NBN 1000. All have unlimited data, and the new pricing gets better versus the old as you go up the speed tiers.
While Vodafone’s new prices are certainly more attractive than its old line-up, how do they compare to the rest of the market? The price comparison isn’t straightforward, given Vodafone doesn’t offer the introductory discount period that many other providers do.
It’s also worth noting Vodafone offers bundle discounts if you have both a mobile and home internet plan with them. Customers with an NBN 25 or NBN 50 plan get $5 off their internet bill per month for bundling their mobile plan. Those on NBN 100 and up get $10 off per month.
We’ll take a look at the overall costs over the first 12 months after signing up to a plan. If you plan on having a mobile plan through Vodafone, remember to mentally factor in the relevant bundle discount.
For NBN 25, Vodafone doesn’t fare too well. Paying $75 for this speed tier is pricey when some plans are less than $50 for the first six months, then are still cheaper after their introductory discounts end.
Here’s Vodafone’s NBN 25 plan with the new pricing:
And here are just a few of the cheapest NBN 25 plans around right now, ranked by total cost over the first year:
Vodafone’s $80 NBN 50 plans are a bit more competitive when you consider long-term costs. It lacks the introductory deal period of many other plans, but $80 per month is roughly in line with the rest of the market when you look at post-discount monthly bills.
That said, it’s still not in our top 10 for NBN 50 pricing when you look at overall cost over the first 12 months, largely thanks to those initial discounts from other providers.
Here’s Vodafone’s NBN 50 plan:
And here’s a list of cheap NBN 50 plans from other providers, ranked by cost over the first 12 months:
Vodafone’s NBN 100 plan is also still not the cheapest, but it’s not bad. At $90 per month, it’s more expensive in both the short and long term than some other providers, but not by too much. For example, Spintel’s NBN 100 plan is $69 per month for the first six months, then $79.95 per month thereafter. That works out to more than $180 difference over the first year.
On top of that, Vodafone reports its typical evening download speeds for NBN 100 are 90Mbps. While not bad, many providers these days get 95Mbps or higher (Spintel reports 100Mbps).
Here’s Vodafone’s NBN 100 plan:
And here are some of the cheapest NBN 100 plans on the market, ranked by cost over the first 12 months:
It’s the same story for NBN 250, but with a bigger potential speed difference. The $100 per month for Vodafone’s NBN 250 plan is pretty good compared to some providers, but there are cheaper plans that also report faster typical evening download speeds.
While Spintel comes up cheapest over 12 months again, it reports only 211Mbps typical downloads in the evening, which is on par with Vodafone’s 210Mbps.
If you want something faster, Southern Phone’s NBN 250 plan is $85 per month for the first six months, then $95 thereafter – with reported typical evening speeds of a full 250Mbps.
Here’s Vodafone’s NBN 250 plan:
And here are the cheapest NBN 250 plans in WhistleOut’s database over the first 12 months:
For NBN 1000, Vodafone’s new $110 per month bill fares much better. This time, it actually makes it into our top 10 list for pricing over the first 12 months, though speed is a different story.
Vodafone reports typical evening download speeds of 450Mbps for this plan. While that’s pretty fast compared to slower NBN speed tiers, it’s a far cry from the 650Mbps or higher of many other NBN 1000 plans – some of which also cost less.
Southern Phone and Superloop are both cheaper and report faster speeds than Vodafone. Over the first year, Southern Phone works out to $48 under Superloop over the first year, but Superloop takes the cake, thanks to its faster typical evening speeds of 750Mbps (versus Southern Phone’s 650Mbps).
Compared to Vodafone’s NBN 1000 plan, Superloop’s is $72 over the first year and reports typical evening speeds that are 300Mbps faster. That said, the pricing between the two is almost identical after the first six months – Superloop is $109 per month after its introductory discount period, whereas Vodafone’s plan is a flat rate of $110 from day one.
Here are some of the cheapest NBN 1000 plans around right now, including Vodafone’s, ranked by cost over the first year:
Alex Angove-Plumb is a journalist at WhistleOut, Australia’s phone and internet comparison website
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