By
Dylan Crismale - Digital Content Editor
Last updated

NBN pit

New data published by the ACCC this week shows that Hybrid-Fibre Coaxial (HFC) connections accounted for the largest number of planned outages across all NBN technology types.

A total of 30% of planned outages in quarter three last year were for HFC connections. This increased to 52% for planned outages that affect more than 500 individual NBN services. Planned outages are those for which NBN Co provides customers with advance notice. 

While the sheer number of planned outages of HFC might seem bad, NBN Co says this is actually a good thing. 

"Emergency outages on the HFC network include where we are proactively addressing degradation issues before it becomes a service fault," an NBN Co spokesperson told WhistleOut. "By doing so, HFC customers benefit by having the network issue proactively resolved sooner."

Planned outages may also be necessary for implementing upgrades. 

"Modernising HFC equipment in the network to enable higher speed and reliability does require planned outages and over 2024 a number of activities occurred to continue to improve customer service performance," said the spokesperson.

HFC-type service account for around 23% of all NBN connections across fixed-line, fixed wireless and satellite services. This makes it the third most common tech type behind FTTN and FTTP. 

HFC also is a core part of NBN Co's plans to introduce faster fixed-line speeds in September this year. 

The NBN Co plans to boost NBN 100 plan (100/20Mbps) download speeds by five times to 500/50Mbps and increase NBN 250 plan (250/25Mbps) speeds to 750/50Mbps.

It will also offer "hyperfast" NBN 2000 plans with download speeds of up to 2Gbps. These speed upgrades will only be available to customers with HFC and Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connections. 

FTTP connections had the second highest amount of planned outages, representing 22%. FTTP only represented 9% of planned outages affecting over 500 people, however.

FTTN had the third highest number of planned outages representing 19% followed by Fixed Wireless (17%), FTTC (9%) and FTTB (3%). There were just 20 planned outages during that period for Satellite NBN which represented less than 1% of the total. 

The planned outage data comes as a result of new record keeping rules the ACCC introduced last year. It requires NBN Co to collect data on network performance and quality. 

You can see all of the data for the September 2024 quarter here. 

Looking for a new NBN plan?

These are the most popular NBN 50 plans with WhistleOut users this week:

#1
Dodo
Dodo
All Fixed Line nbn®
Editor's Pick

nbn50 Unlimited Plan

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Incl. $30/mth discount for 6 months based on the standard price $87.99/mth*. Ends 08.12.26. T&Cs apply.
$57.99/mth
Min. cost $57.99
#2
amaysim
amaysim
All Fixed Line nbn®

NBN50

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Special Intro Offer - Includes $10/mth off for the first 6 months, $75/mth for first 6 months, then $85/mth
$75/mth
Min. cost $75
#3
Belong
Belong
All Fixed Line nbn®

NBN Standard Plus – Unlimited

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Includes $36 off for 6 months - $55/mth for first 6 mths, then $91/mth (Offer ends 04.11.26) + Free $80 Mobile SIM
$55/mth
Min. cost $55
#4
Tangerine Telecom
Tangerine Telecom
All Fixed Line nbn®

Value Plus NBN 50/20

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Includes $25/mth off for the first 6 mths, $64.90/month for first 6 months, then $89.90/month.
$64.90/mth
Min. cost $64.90
#5
Superloop
Superloop
All Fixed Line nbn®

Extra-value nbn50/20

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Incl. $20/mth off for 6 months! $69/mth for 6 mths, then $89/mth + Bundle & Save
$69/mth
Min. cost $69
#6
TPG
TPG
All Fixed Line nbn®

nbn50 Unlimited Plan

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: $69.99/mth for first 6 months, then $89.99/mth. T&Cs apply.
$69.99/mth
Min. cost $69.99
Link not supplied
#7
Flip
Flip
All Fixed Line nbn®

Unlimited Family nbn50

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Incl. $16.90/mth off for 6 months - $68/mth for first 6mths then $84.90/mth. New customers only. Ends 31.10.26. T&Cs apply.
$68/mth
Min. cost $68
#8
iiNet
iiNet
All Fixed Line nbn®

nbn50 Liimitless

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Includes $20/mth off for 6 mths – $69.99/mth for first 6 months, then $89.99/mth. Use code SAVE20FOR6
$69.99/mth
+ $10 Upfront
Min. cost $79.99
Link not supplied
#9
Kogan Internet
Kogan Internet
All Fixed Line nbn®

Silver Unlimited

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Incl. $11/mth off for 12mths. $69.90/mth for first 12 months then revert back to $80.90/mth. Offer available until withdrawn.
$69.90/mth
Min. cost $69.90
#10
Vodafone
Vodafone
All Fixed Line nbn®

Essential+ nbn®

  • nbn® 50/17 Mbps
  • Unlimited Data
  • Deal: Save $10/mth when you bundle with a mobile plan with Vodafone. T&Cs apply.
$94/mth
Min. cost $94
Link not supplied

Dylan Crismale

Digital Content Editor

Dylan Crismale
Dylan Crismale is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut, has been writing for almost a decade across a variety of Australian publications. He previously worked as a writer at Finder covering energy, internet and mobile plans. Dylan is passionate about finding the best deals to save people money and educating people about tech. When he's not sat at his desk Dylan loves working out, bingeing TV and hanging out with friends.​

Read full bio


Compare internet plans from the following providers...

Latest Internet Deals

Get the Tangerine nbn500 Speedy Max plan for only $59.90/mth!

WhistleOut Special Offer - SpinTel nbn25 just $41/mth for the first 6mths

Fast, reliable satellite internet starting at $75/mth with no upfront hardware cost!

MASSIVE SAVINGS with Dodo nbn! nbn500 for $62.99/mth for 6mths!!

Family Max nbn500/50 for just $74/mth for first 6mths for new residential customers

NEW Exetel's One plan 500/40 $80/mth. No gimmicks, just award-winning nbn.