NBN’s Best Plans for Games in 2021
Australia doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to boosting internet infrastructure, but with the National Broadband Network (NBN) now officially rolling out (although some may disagree), you likely have now gained access to some type of connection. Fiber wired at home … and you’ve likely found yourself confused about the choice when it comes to the amount of plans available.
If you are an online gamer, choosing a good NBN plan and ISP can be more difficult, as it can be difficult to know exactly what to look for for an optimal gaming experience.
Below, we’ve outlined the main things gamers need to consider when choosing an ISP to support their hobby, from the time of testing the connection to download speeds and the different NBN connection types offered.
Ping speed and games
For players who play a lot of online multiplayer, ping time is arguably the most important factor to consider. Ping speed is partly in the hands of the ISP, as carriers can choose to optimize and direct game traffic so that it is prioritized over other types – however, many of the effects on ping are completely outside the ISP’s control, such as the type of NBN connection that You use it and set up your home network.
When it comes to connection type, FTTP technology will always deliver the fastest connections because it is a comprehensive optical connection between you and your ISP – no “old” technology involved that can slow things down. In comparison, fiber to the node (FTTN) and mixed fiber (HFC) use copper telephone lines and coaxial cables, respectively, which are inherently less responsive than optical fibers. If you are only a short distance from the local phone / internet exchange, your presence on an outdated communication technology may not have much effect, but if you live far away, or there is a physical deterioration of the lines, it may affect the ping.
All of this means it’s almost impossible to know when to test your ISP’s connection before connecting – although choosing an ISP that specifically highlights their gaming chips should put you afoot. (More on this below).
Download and game speeds
Download speed is also another important concern for gamers, albeit a minor one.
In a wired NBN plan, all Australian players must have a choice of either NBN 25, 50, or 100, and in some cases a later NBN 250 or 1000 plan. The numbers here refer to the highest possible speed in megabytes per second (megabytes per second) that you will get on those plans. For example: NBN 1000 will download at 1Gbps (about 125MB / s) at its best, but you won’t get that almost constantly.
You may also find this drop during peak times, and most ISPs claim peak speeds in the mid to 40 seconds. Meanwhile, NBN 100 plans offer a maximum of 100 Mbps, which means at best that downloading 130GB will take about 3 hours (although remember: getting top speeds with NBN is rare) It’s worth noting that the NBN class is Which you choose should not affect your sounds, only the maximum download speeds.
All of the service providers listed below offer a “typical evening speed” because you are likely to experience the worst speeds in your plan. A lot of NBN 1000 providers advertise an evening speed of 250Mbps, which is less than 1000Mbps, although in reality you should experience significantly faster speeds than this: We polled some NBN 1000 users for this story and in Their test speeds were always above 800 Mbps, even during peak hours.
Meanwhile, typical evening speeds on an NBN 250 plan can vary between 150 and 200 Mbps, depending on your ISP. It’s a good idea to pay attention to these when choosing a plan: If consistent speeds are important, try to prioritize providers who can keep their download speeds close to peak speeds during the evening hours.
No matter which NBN speed you choose, it can still be worth investing in one Best gaming routers In the market. Not only will this improve the overall speed of your connection, but it can help reduce the chance of any delays occurring with your home network setup.
Types of communication and games
If you are interested in one of NBN’s high-speed plans, such as NBN 250 and NBN 1000, you will need the infrastructure for it. For NBN 250 plans, or any plan that claims to deliver more than 100Mbps, you’ll need an HFC or FTTP connection – they won’t work over a Fiber to the node (FTTN) or equivalent connection.
Here are the four main types of static NBN currently available to consumers, in order of preference when it comes to gaming.
FTTP (Fiber to Buildings). As the name suggests, this is an end-to-end fiber optic connection that goes straight into your home, rather than ending up in a neighborhood or building node and then relying on “old” cables to cover the last segment. It’s the best option, but it’s only available on a limited scale – FTTP accounts for around 25% of NBN installations. This connection type supports all NBN speeds up to NBN 1000.
HFC (Hybrid Fibers). It is the second best connection type. It supports up to 250 Mbps due to the use of the current coaxial cable (originally installed for cable TV and the Internet) for the last “internal” portion of the NBN connection. It is also theoretically capable of performing faster communication operations than FTTN.
FTTN (fiber to ganglion). This connection type uses copper phone lines from a local “node”, and has maximum speeds of only 100 Mbps, so this is the “worst” type for gaming – although in most cases it is still capable of perfectly adequate gaming. This supports connections up to NBN 100, although some providers, such as Telstra, don’t offer it on all FTTN services.
FTTC / B (fiber to pavement / basement). These connection types are a variation of FTTN which brings the fiber connection to an entry point in the building (rather than a nearby “node”), but still uses copper telephone lines for the last short section of the connection. It could offer a slight improvement over FTTN and could support up to 100 Mbps, although Telstra does not currently offer NBN 100 plans to users with FTTC.
With all that being said, your NBN connection type shouldn’t add a huge amount of overhead to your ping times. Unless there is a serious degradation of the HFC or FTTN / C / B line, the latter can still provide ping speeds of less than 10-20ms to local Aussie servers. So, if you are having issues with loud noises, the cause is most likely either your ISP, local Wi-Fi, or wired network setup.
Data caps and games
For those who spend a lot of time gaming, things will likely get quite pricey if you use a specific plan. If you regularly download games from a dreaded Steam buildup, GB units can accumulate very quickly. With games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that require downloads of 130GB, not to mention updates that sometimes reach up to 60GB, you won’t want any kind of download limits. Fortunately, giving away these limits isn’t very expensive, and most of the plans below offer unlimited data.
Australia’s best internet gaming provider
Select Australian Internet Service Providers, including the likes of Australian broadband And the MyRepublic-They sell themselves on specific “gaming” improvements to network infrastructure and settings that can help reduce voices. While the factors we discussed above are still applicable to these ISPs, community feedback from players on these providers is generally positive – and since they make specific claims about gameplay speed, they should be more receptive to requests for support in the situation you have problems. With ping for a specific game.
Telstra Shows Game improvement service, Which uses the same DumaOS technology used in some gaming routers such as This. This technology primarily prioritizes traffic to PCs or game consoles “to help reduce lag spikes” and more. This service adds A $ 10 to your internet bill with Telstra, with the first month free, and requires you to have your Telstra smart modem. We have not tested this service ourselves, so we cannot guarantee its quality. If you have a gaming router with DumaOS, you probably don’t need this service.