
We hear this a lot from small businesses and home offices lately.
You’ve upgraded your NBN plan, maybe even received a free speed upgrade, but when you run a speed test, the results don’t look much different to before. So what’s going on?
The short answer is: your internet connection may be faster, but your equipment or Wi‑Fi setup might not be able to use it.
Let’s break it down.
As part of recent NBN upgrades, many residential and small business customers on Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC / cable) connections have been upgraded to much faster speeds at no extra cost.
Typical speed tiers now include:
On paper, that’s a massive jump. But there’s a catch.
When NBN speeds were under 100 Mbps, many offices and homes were running:
This wasn’t a problem at the time because the internet itself was the bottleneck.
Now that NBN plans deliver 500 Mbps, 750 Mbps or more, that same equipment becomes the limiting factor.
An older router or network switch that only supports 100 Mbps.
No matter how fast your NBN plan is:
✅ To fully use higher‑speed NBN plans, all networking gear must support gigabit (1000 Mbps)
That includes:
To truly see the benefit of faster NBN plans, a wired Ethernet connection is best.
That doesn’t mean Wi‑Fi is bad—but it does have limits.
To get the best possible Wi‑Fi speeds, you need:
Typical real‑world results:
| Distance from router | Signal strength | Typical speeds |
|---|---|---|
| Same room | ~‑40 dBm | ~600–800 Mbps |
| 1 room away | ~‑60 dBm | ~300–500 Mbps |
| 2 rooms away | ~‑75 to ‑80 dBm | ~50–150 Mbps |
Even with excellent equipment, Wi‑Fi speed drops quickly as signal strength falls or walls get in the way.
With a reasonably modern router and laptop (Wi‑Fi 5 or entry‑level Wi‑Fi 6), more typical results are:
This is normally the reason people say:
“I upgraded to a 500 Mbps plan but I only get 80 or 100 Mbps on Wi‑Fi.”
If parts of your office or house are far from the modem, boosting Wi‑Fi power rarely works well.
✅ Best practice:
Install a separate Wi‑Fi access point closer to where people work and run a network cable back to the modem or switch.
This gives you:
This approach is far better than extenders or “boosters”.
Run these in a web browser for a quick check.
On high‑speed connections, browsers can become the limiting factor.
✅ For best results on Windows:
This gives much more accurate results on 500 Mbps and higher plans.
Evening slowdowns (typically 7pm–11pm) are common and not caused by anything in your office or home.
Possible causes:
Some providers invest heavily in capacity to maintain good evening speeds.
Lower‑cost providers may struggle during peak times.
If speeds are consistently poor only in the evenings, equipment upgrades won’t fix it—you may need to change providers.
At Excelero IT Solutions, we regularly help small businesses:
If your upgraded NBN isn’t delivering the speed you expected, we can help you get the most out of it.
📩 Contact Excelero IT Solutions to book a Wi‑Fi audit or consultation.