Optus 5G Home Internet Review (2024): More speed, fewer worries, and free Netflix

By Fergus Halliday

Last updated 09 April 2024

Optus 5G Home Internet with Ultra WiFi 5G Modem

Our verdict

Optus’ 5G home internet combines high speeds, low effort and competitive pricing in a way that’s easy to like. It’s great value, so long as you don’t mind the strings attached or think too much about the details.

Plans from $69 per month

What we love

Simple and easy setup
Fast speeds
Bundled Netflix on select plans

What could be improved

Very basic management interface
Speed limits on cheaper plans could be a little higher
Not available everywhere

If I had to pick a favourite thing about my current NBN setup, it’s that I never think about it. Even as someone who works from home, plays plenty of online games, and streams a fair few shows, it’s not that often that I find myself constrained by the limitations of Australia’s second most popular speed tier. Sure, like most Aussies, I get the odd outage. Besides that though, it’s usually fast enough, stable enough and cheap enough that I’ve rarely been compelled to rock the boat.

I might be a sicko when it comes to a lot of things, but I doubt I’m much of an outlier when it comes to this. Faster speeds or a cheaper price might be nice, but never having to sweat the status of my connection is better. That said, it’s been hard not to notice a trend among my friends and coworkers.

More and more of them are ditching the NBN for 5G. Initially, I couldn’t help but be sceptical. My experiences with Australia’s earliest crop of 5G mobile plans didn’t give me any second thoughts about settling down with a provider that doesn’t offer it at all. However, as the cost of staying connected has risen over the last two years, 5G home internet has started to look like an increasingly promising alternative to a fixed-line connection. Even if I opted for one of the thriftier options, I could be saving a chunk of change and if I ended up on an uncapped one I could even end up with faster speeds and more bang for my buck.

Optus launched a new modem earlier this year, so I decided to take that as an excuse to put Australia’s most promising alternative to the NBN (and Optus’ latest hardware) to the test.

The sky is the limit

Optus Plus Everyday 5G

Wireless 45/11 Mbps
Unlimited Data

$69/mth

Min. cost $69

Link not supplied

$69/mth

Min. cost $69

Link not supplied

The new Optus Ultra WiFi 5G modem can be paired with any of the 5G internet plans seen in the table above. This upgraded networking gear promises to surpass its predecessor in speeds with support for as many as 128 connected devices.

Right now, the modem supports WiFi 6. However, Optus has said that it’ll support WiFi 7 later in the year. Once that happens, the Optus Ultra WiFi 5G modem be able to offer local network speeds of up to 46Gbps.

That’s a dizzyingly high figure to think about, but it’s important to remember that it just refers to how quickly devices on your home network can talk to one another rather than the speed of your internet connection. In reality, the typical download and upload speeds you’re likely to encounter with this device will depend on which of Optus’ three 5G Home Internet plans you pair the modem up with.

The cheapest option here is the Optus Plus Everyday 5G plan. Priced at $69 per month, it offers unlimited data, typical peak download speeds of up to 45Mbps and upload speeds of around 11Mbps.

The next option on the menu is the Optus Plus Everyday Fast 5G plan. This one is $10 more expensive at $79 per month but comes with faster download speeds of up to 87Mbps and upload speeds of around 15Mbps.

Finally, there’s the Optus Plus Entertainer Superfast 5G plan. This one is ordinarily priced at $99 per month but comes with uncapped 5G, unlimited data, and a bundled Netflix Standard Subscription. While the sky is the limit with this plan, you’re looking at typical peak download speeds of up to 240Mbps and upload speeds of around 20Mbps in practice.

The one caveat worth keeping track of here is the cost of the 5G modem. While all three of the above plans are “technically” contract-free in that they are month-to-month, you’ll have to pay a modem fee if you leave before the first 36 months are up. If you stay on for the full term, you won’t pay a cent. Otherwise, you’re looking at a a sum between $13 and $468 depending on how many months Optus has you on the books.

The other thing to keep in mind here is that wireless internet connections can be more prone to congestion than fixed-line networks like the NBN. 5G is still the new kid on the block when it comes to NBN alternatives and while it’s always been very dependent on your geographical location, that’s even more the case as more Aussies have embraced the technology.

To ease smooth of that uncertainty, Optus offers a Satisfaction Guarantee of either 40Mbps or 50Mbps with its 5G Home Internet plans. If your 5G connection doesn’t live up to those benchmarks and Optus can’t solve the issue, you’ll be able to cancel your service with no extra fees or fuss.

Having the option to go back to the NBN if home wireless internet doesn’t work for you or Optus can’t live up to its end of the bargain doesn’t erase any of the potential pitfalls that come with this particular fixed wireless alternative, but it does make them easier to live with.

A modern modem with a faster future

In any case, the Optus Plus Entertainer Superfast 5G plan was what I used to test drive the new Optus 5G Ultra WiFi modem. Given that faster speeds are a big part of why you’d opt for this over a fixed-line NBN connection, it made the most sense.

In practice, my download speeds have ranged between 200Mbps and 500Mbps, and upload speeds between 50Mbps and 60Mbps. Those speeds aren’t always as consistent as you might get from a traditional NBN connection but when they’re that much faster, that’s a trade-off that feels easy to live with.

While I haven’t encountered many issues with playing online games like Lethal Company, PUGB, Helldivers 2, and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide while connected to the Optus 5G Ultra WiFi modem, those looking at using this thing for gaming may want to keep in mind that the hardware here isn’t built to offer single-digit millisecond latency. It’ll download games in a flash, but if you need that specific kind of high-performance networking experience then this might not be the right fit.

On the other end of the spectrum, those who want to think as little about their home internet hardware as possible will likely find a lot to like here. Writ large, I found that the Optus 5G Ultra WiFi modem made a very positive early impression. I was pleasantly surprised with how simple and smooth the unboxing experience was.

Finding the right place in my house for the modem to live was a bit of a head-scratcher but the setup itself was a cinch. I took the hardware out of the box, stuck the SIM in, and plugged the unit into a power socket.

The design of the unit itself is decidedly minimalist. It’s a dark grey monolith akin in shape to the Xbox Series X. There’s a 2.4-inch LCD screen on the outside, plus a trio of navigation buttons that are used to cycle between a half dozen different preset screens. By default, this display acts as a status indicator for the quality of your connection. Past that, it’s a decent shortcut if you need to check on details like how many devices are connected to the modem and what your WiFi password is.

On the back of the modem, you’ll find two 2.5Gbps ethernet ports (one for LAN and for WAN), plus a single USB-C one. That’s not a huge spread and it could create some bottleneck issues if you’re looking at a situation where you want more hard-wired connections.

Like its Telstra counterpart, the new Optus 5G Ultra WiFi modem combines the 2.4GHz bands and 5Ghz bands by default. It’ll automatically decide which device should be on what channel, which can lead to situations where a given device ends up capped out at the 100Mbps limit of the 2.4Ghz band involved. This can be fixed by logging into the router using a web browser and tinkering with some settings, but the interface involved isn’t the best.

Those who like to get their hands dirty when it comes to home networking may find the sanded-down edges here might prove to be more of a constraint rather than a comfort. Still, if you like the idea of having a home internet setup that’s dead simple then you’ll probably really like the new Optus 5G Ultra WiFi Modem.

My two-bedroom apartment isn’t that big, so I wasn’t that surprised that the Optus Ultra WiFi 5G Modem provided ample coverage within it. Putting a few walls and doors between my PC and the unit did knock me down in terms of signal strength, but I didn’t encounter any major issues when it came to streaming or video conferencing on that medium-grade connection.

If you do, Optus will be more than happy to sell you a WiFi booster. The existing Optus Ultra WiFi Booster Gen 2 is compatible with the telco’s new modem. It costs $216 and can be bought outright, or on a 12, 24, or 36-month payment plan.

Optus 5G Home Internet - Final Thoughts

I used to only think about my NBN whenever something went wrong. Now, even when all is right and well, I can’t stop thinking about how 5G home internet could be just that little better than my current setup. Even as someone who would occasionally grumble about having to download a particularly large game but was otherwise happy with my existing NBN 100 connection, it only took a handful of weeks with Optus’ 5G internet before I started thinking more seriously about the idea of permanently jumping ship.

There was a time in my life when I wanted to have extra control over my home network setup. Nowadays, I just want to think about as much as I do my choice in washing machines. If you’d describe yourself as falling along similar lines and living in the right area for it, then it may be worth checking out an Optus 5G Home Internet plan for yourself. Even if you – like me – are tempted enough to tangle with the uncapped internet option, then it won’t cost you that much more and it might even save the cost of a Netflix subscription.