Ever since the NBN speed upgrades arrived in September this year, I’ve been pretty vocal in my opinion of the value offered by the NBN 500 tier. Although, up until now, that opinion has largely been speculative, due to the fact that any claims around real-world speeds have come from providers themselves.

That’s all now changed thanks to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) releasing its latest Measuring Broadband Performance report. Published today (December 17), the new report confirms that NBN 500 more than delivers on the promised performance.

To give you a general overview of the NBN 500 tier (and before I get into some serious numbers), the ACCC confirmed that “[the] average download speed on the upgraded NBN Home Fast plan during the busy hours of 7 to 11pm on weekdays was 503.9 Mbps, with 80.5 per cent of services on this plan achieving an average busy hour speed exceeding 500 Mbps.” In short, NBN 500 plans are actually overdelivering on speed, which further cements them as an exceptional-value option for any Aussie home that can access them.

The top-performing providers

As with previous broadband reports from the ACCC (which we often use here at TechRadar to back up any claims we make when recommending certain internet service providers), performance data is broken down by provider and by time of day. The ACCC relies on monitoring real-world customers’ connections, with the nine providers mentioned in the new report all having crossed a minimum threshold of 40 total users.Those providers consist of the ‘big three’ of Telstra, Optus and TPG, along with a selection of smaller providers such as Exetel and Leaptel. Data is then collected during all hours of the day and the identified busy evening hours of 7pm to 11pm.

In what may come as surprising news to some, Optus came out on top, delivering 104.5% of advertised plan speeds during all hours of the day and 103.7% during the busier hours. Exetel, which regularly performs well in the ACCC reports, came in a close second, recording 103.8% and 103.4% for the same periods, respectively.

Rounding out the top three is TPG, which achieved 103.4% of advertised plan speeds during all hours and 102.8% during the busier evening hours. You can view the full graph of results in the image below.

These figures do encompass all plans offered by a provider, so in Optus’ case that means the slower NBN 25 and faster NBN 1000 plans are also considered. In Exetel’s case, however, only the NBN 500 is taken into account, since the provider has only offered its new 500Mbps ‘One’ plan since June.

And in what could be interpreted as proof that offering just a single plan can benefit end users, (and should be simpler to manage from the provider’s perspective), Exetel was the only provider of out of four the report mentioned to successfully deliver four simultaneous 4K video streams 100% of the time. Aussie Broadband, Leaptel and Telstra were also assessed – Telstra was able to consistently achieve three streams without any issues, while Leaptel managed two and Aussie Broadband could only manage one.

Proof the fibre upgrade works

The main thing to be aware of with NBN 500 (and faster) plans is that you’ll need either a fibre to the premises (FTTP) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) connection type to access them. If you don’t have one of these yet, then you’re likely eligible for NBN Co’s free fibre upgrade that will see the necessary equipment for a FTTP connection installed at no cost. If you qualify for the latter I’d 100% recommend taking advantage of it.

Why? Because the ACCC’s data shows that customers with the combination of an FTTP connection and an NBN 500 plan stand to benefit the most. The data shows that this specific pairing resulted in customers achieving 102.9% of plan speeds during all hours of the day – or 514.5Mbps – and 102.5% during the busier hours – 512.5Mbps.

On the other hand, customers on the same plan with an HFC connection only achieved 97.8% and 97.4% of plan speeds during the same respective periods.

(Interestingly, customers with an FTTP connection and an NBN 750 plan achieved just 97.6% and 97.3% of their advertised plan speed – which to my mind just reinforces what great value NBN 500 plans are.)

Not on full fibre? No problem!

If you connect to the fixed-line NBN via an older technology like fibre to the node (FTTN) or fibre to the curb (FTTC), then the maximum plan speed you can achieve is 100Mbps. While that could be all the speed less-demanding households need, with 5x faster NBN 500 plans usually costing the same as their 100Mbps counterparts, it makes more sense to get the upgrade in my opinion.

Still, if you are on either of these connection types, then the ACCC report has some good news too. The consumer watchdog found that customers who connect via an FTTN connection were able to achieve 104.7% of plan speeds on NBN 25, 95.6% on NBN 50 and 90.1% on NBN 100. While those last two figures are shy of 100%, they’re not too far off. Plus, these figures represent an average of all the providers monitored.

Overall, FTTN connections across all available speed tiers achieved 95.8% of their advertised plan speed. FTTC fared batter, achieving 105.1% of advertised plan speeds across all available tiers.

Which plans to get?

In my view, what the ACCC’s data ultimately shows is that you should be able to turn to any NBN provider for a fast service. It therefore makes sense to opt for a plan that’s affordable. I’ve picked out what I think are the best affordable options across each speed tier below, and you can also click through to my dedicated guides for each tier for more options.