La Niña will likely dampen the summer plans of Australians across the eastern and northern parts of the country, meaning families may become even more reliant on their broadband connections to keep themselves entertained. But what if our online requirements and internet connections don’t stack up?
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting it will be a very wet summer, so if your household’s plans to go to the beach are replaced with Netflix, Switch and PlayStation, how do you make sure your internet connection is up to the task?
Do you need faster internet?
The easiest thing you can do is run a speed test. That will give you an indication of what you’re working with, noting that it’s probably best to test in peak hours – like the evening – to see the worst-case-scenario speeds.
The streaming services, for example, will accomodate slower connections and adjust accordingly, but if you are wanting to stream Netflix or Apple TV in high definition, that will be around 5Mbps of speed needed per stream. If you’re wanting to stream in 4K, then it’s 25Mbps per stream.
HD will likely be enough for most, but if you factor in multiple people using the internet at once in a household, then it adds up pretty quickly, and you might need to go to a higher plan.
Check what plan you’re on
If you’re connected to the internet using the National Broadband Network, the first thing you should do is check with your internet service provider what speed plan you’re on, and what your download limit is per month. If you’re on a basic 12Mbps or 25Mbps plan, you may want to see if you can upgrade to something a bit faster, such as 50Mbps or 100Mbps.
The higher the speed plan, the more likely your internet will be able to cope with more people streaming and gaming and doing all other online activities at once.
Check if you can change your plan
You might not be able to actually change your plan, depending on the technology you use to connect to the NBN.
Your internet service provider will be able to tell you the highest possible speed you’ll be able to achieve on your current connection, and the corresponding plan the company can then offer to you.
See if you can upgrade
If you are on a technology like fibre-to-the-node for the NBN and can’t get the higher speeds, NBN Co may be able to upgrade it for you, if you agree to be locked into a higher speed plan for a set period of time, or you agree to fund the fibre extension yourself. This is a much more expensive option, and will run into the thousands of dollars at a minimum, so it’s unlikely many people will choose this just to beat the wet summer blues.
The other catch is, it probably won’t be done when you need it. NBN Co was initially starting to take orders from November this year, but the company did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia about whether that had gone ahead as planned.
Even if the fibre extension was available, it would still take time to construct, so while in the long term you’ll get a faster NBN, it probably won’t be done before everyone heads back to work or school.
See if you have alternative choices like 5G
If you live in an area where Telstra or Optus have rolled out 5G, their 5G services are incredibly easy to sign up for and set up at home, and very competitive with NBN plans.
Optus’s plan is unlimited data from up to 210Mbps download speeds at $79 per month. The exit fee is just the cost of the modem.
Telstra’s plan is $85 a month for 1TB of data, with average speeds of 378Mbps or up to 600Mbps. The plan is month to month, with no exit fees provided the modem is returned.
Even if you can’t get 5G, if you are able to get 4G the home modem options are improving, and data rates are cheaper than they used to be. TPG offers home wireless broadband for $54 a month for up to 20Mbps, for example.
In regional and remote areas of Australia that do not get good 4G or 5G coverage, your options may be more limited to what the NBN has to offer on fixed wireless or satellite (if they’ve connected you).
Brave the rain
If all else fails, you might have to put on the gumboots and raincoat and make the most of the summer rain.
