Broadband speeds

The busiest time on any home broadband network is 7pm to 11pm, when most people are home streaming, gaming and downloading. The ACCC asks every provider to tell you the speed you can typically expect during those hours, because that’s when speeds are most likely to drop. We call it the typical evening speed.

These are our initial estimates. We’re a new provider and don’t yet have three months of measured busy-period speeds from our own customers. We’ve worked these figures out from each tier’s speed, less the overhead every internet connection carries, on a network built so the evening peak doesn’t slow it down. Once we have three months of measured results we’ll publish those instead, and update our Critical Information Summaries to match.

Plans not listed for your connection type aren’t available on it. None of our plans are available on nbn Fixed Wireless or Satellite.

A plan’s maximum speed is the top speed of the nbn tier it runs on — for example, 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. It’s a ceiling, not a promise. Your typical evening speed is what we expect you to actually get between 7pm and 11pm, measured at your nbn connection.

What you see on a device can be lower again, because of things inside your home and out on the internet that we don’t control. The rest of this page explains them.

The technology nbn uses to reach your home sets what speeds are possible. You can see yours when you check your address with us.

Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)

Fibre runs all the way to a connection box inside your home. It supports every tier up to 1000/100 Mbps and speed doesn’t depend on distance. Some older connection boxes need an nbn upgrade before they can run the fastest tiers. If yours does, we tell you, and what nbn charges for it, before anything is ordered.

Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC)

Fibre runs to your street, then coaxial cable (the kind once used for pay TV) runs to an nbn connection box in your home. HFC supports tiers up to 1000/100 Mbps. The cable in your street is shared with your neighbours, so on the fastest tiers HFC can be more affected by local conditions than FTTP.

Fibre to the Curb (FTTC)

Fibre runs to a pit near your property boundary, then a short copper line runs to an nbn connection device inside. The copper run is short, so most FTTC lines reach 100/20 Mbps, but poor copper or internal wiring can hold some lines back. FTTC tops out at 100/20 Mbps.

Fibre to the Building (FTTB)

For apartment blocks: fibre runs to a communications room in the building, then the building’s copper phone wiring runs to your apartment. Speed depends on the length and condition of that copper. FTTB tops out at 100/20 Mbps, and some FTTB lines can’t reach 100 Mbps, or even 50.

Fibre to the Node (FTTN)

Fibre runs to a cabinet (the node) in your area, then the old copper phone line runs from the node to your home. The longer that copper line, the lower your speed, and old or damaged copper, corroded joints and extra phone sockets in your home all reduce it further. FTTN tops out at 100/20 Mbps, and many FTTN lines can’t reach 100 Mbps, and some can’t reach 50.

On FTTN and FTTB, nbn measures the maximum attainable speed of your line once it’s connected. That’s the fastest it can go, whatever plan you’re on. We can see it, and we’ll tell you what it is — see section 9.

• Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is usually the biggest limit. Walls, floors, distance from the router, neighbouring networks and microwaves all cut speed. A single older Wi-Fi router often can’t deliver more than 100–300 Mbps to one device, even right next to it.
• Your router. It needs to be able to route at your plan’s speed. For a 1000 Mbps plan you need a router with a gigabit (or faster) WAN port, and good Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 to get close to gigabit without a cable. On FTTN and FTTB you need a VDSL2 modem-router that supports vectoring, and its VDSL2 chip also affects the speed your line syncs at.
• Your devices. Older phones, laptops and smart TVs may have slow Wi-Fi or 100 Mbps Ethernet ports. Other people in your home using the connection at the same time share the speed.
• Cabling. Use Cat5e or better Ethernet cable. Old or damaged cables, and powerline adapters, can limit speed. On FTTN and FTTB, a phone extension cord between the wall socket and your modem can make a big difference — plug straight into the first phone socket if you can.

A download can only go as fast as the website, game server or streaming service sending it. Services overseas, busy servers, and services that cap their own speed will all be slower than your plan allows — that’s the other end, not your connection. VPNs also reduce speed.

We run our own network (AS152590) and our own broadband network gateway, so we control how your traffic is handled.

• No shaping or throttling. Your speed isn’t slowed down after a certain amount of data or at certain times.
• No traffic prioritisation. We don’t prioritise, slow down or block particular types of traffic, apps or websites. The only exceptions are where the law requires us to block something, or where we briefly filter an attack to protect the network (see our Acceptable Use Policy).
• Built for the busy hour. We buy and plan capacity so that the 7–11pm peak doesn’t congest our network, and we watch busy-hour use so we can add capacity as it grows.

1. Plug one computer straight into your router with an Ethernet cable. Wi-Fi tests measure your Wi-Fi, not your nbn connection.
2. Make sure nothing else in your home is using the internet: pause downloads, streaming, backups and game updates on every device.
3. Use a well-known speed test site and pick a server in Australia, ideally in your state.
4. Test several times, on different days, including between 7pm and 11pm. Write down the results, with the date and time.

If your wired results are good but Wi-Fi is slow, the problem is your Wi-Fi setup. We’re happy to suggest ways to improve it.

Contact us on 02 4398 7081 or hello@warp.net.au, and send your test results if you have them. We’ll:

• test your line from our end and check for faults;
• check the maximum attainable speed nbn reports for your line (on FTTN, FTTB and FTTC); and
• if there’s a fault, report it to nbn and chase it until it’s fixed.

If your line can’t reach the speed of your plan, we’ll tell you, and you can choose to:

• move to a plan your line can reach, and we refund the price difference all the way back to the day your service went live; or
• leave without paying anything more, and we refund the unused part of any period you’ve already paid for.

You won’t be kept on a plan your line can’t deliver.

If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled it, you can make a complaint, and then go to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (1800 062 058).

The ACCC runs the Measuring Broadband Australia program, which measures real-world speeds on volunteer households’ connections and publishes the results by provider and by nbn technology. WARP Internet isn’t currently reported individually, but the reports are a good independent guide to what each technology delivers. Find them at accc.gov.au by searching for “Measuring Broadband Australia”.

Each plan’s speeds and price are also set out in its Critical Information Summary.