Fibre to the Node (FTTN) is one of the five fixed-line technologies connecting homes and business to the NBN. Where it was once by far the most common type of NBN connection, it's recently fallen behind Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), now barely holding on to 2nd place above Hybrid Fibre-Coaxial (HFC). And the FTTN footprint will continue to drop, thanks to ongoing upgrades to the network.
In this guide, we'll cover the main differences between FTTN and other fixed-line technologies and what this means for you, as well as why it's so much worse than some alternatives and what can you do about it.
Before we start, here are a few of the most popular NBN plans in our database that most FTTN customers should be able to get:
What is Fibre to the Node (FTTN)?
Fibre to the Node is a fixed-line NBN technology that uses old-school copper telephone wires for the last small leg of your connection – usually less than 700m and more than 200m, but some connections might be shorter or longer than this.
This reliance on older, pre-existing wires made it cheaper to roll out initially, which is why it was once the most common. It's also the slowest and least reliable of any fixed-line NBN connection type, which is why it's being replaced.
The problem comes from those twisted-pair copper telephone wires. This type of cabling was never designed to handle reliable, high-speed data transfer. And the longer the length of copper wires, the worse it gets. Not only that, buildings that pre-date high speed internet often have poorly maintained cables in the walls, making a bad situation worse. And the copper wires in your home or building aren't NBN Co's responsibility – they're yours or your landlords.
Thankfully, FTTN's dominance over Australia's internet landscape is ending. As part of the ongoing free FTTN to FTTP upgrade program, millions of premises have made the switch to FTTP and millions more can apply for their upgrade, but are yet to do so.
Already, FTTP has become to dominant form of NBN connection, with FTTN barely (for now) hovering in second place above HFC. Here's a quick look at how the makeup of the NBN has changed over the past few years:
| Percentage of NBN connections | June 2021 | June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| FTTN (%) | 36.7% | 22.9% |
| FTTP (%) | 19.1% | 38.1% |
| HFC (%) | 23.2% | 22.5% |
| FTTC (%) | 12.4% | 8.4% |
| FTTB (%) | 3.1% | 3% |
According to the latest market indicator report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), FTTN now accounts for about 23% of NBN connections. At the same time, about 38% of connections are served by FTTP and 23% by HFC.
Compare this to the 2021 version of this report and the numbers are about 37% for FTTN and 19% for FTTP, while HFC had roughly the same coverage share.
FTTN vs. other technologies
The difference between NBN technologies only applies to what NBN calls the "last mile" because it makes up a very small portion of the distance your data travels. But even though it's a short distance, it can make a huge difference.
The lengthy twisted-pair copper wiring used by Fibre to the Node creates the biggest bottleneck of the fixed-line NBN technologies. These copper wires can be hundreds of metres long (sometimes over 1km).
In contrast, FTTP runs fibre-optic cables all the way to a connection box inside your home. HFC is the next-fastest connection technology. It uses thick, insulated copper wiring that's usually not too long and is much better suited for high-speed, reliable data transfer. FTTP and HFC are the only two technologies that can sign up to an NBN 500 plan or faster. Both are currently capable of speeds around gigabits per second (2Gbps).
Fibre to the Building (FTTB) is similar enough to FTTN that the two are often grouped together as "FTTN/B" when it comes to official reports, statistics, and ISP requirements. With FTTB, fibre is run to a central location in an apartment complex. This can mean it's much faster than FTTN, but it depends on the quality of wiring in your apartment complex, as well as the length of cabling. It can also suffer from stability issues when internet demand in your building is high.
Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) is also similar to FTTN, but is usually faster. The copper wires run from your home to a distribution point that's typically within 100m (sometimes less) and only needs to service a handful of premises, as opposed to the hundreds per FTTN node.
FTTN plans and speeds
The cost of a fixed-line NBN plan isn't dependent on your technology – the main difference is what plans are available to you.
At best, premises with FTTN can sign up to NBN 100 (occasionally NBN 100/40), but sometimes not even that. In fact, when a customer migrates to their service to a new provider, the ACCC states an ISP should test the maximum speed of a given FTTN connection to determine if anything faster than NBN 25/5 is even viable (this is also true for FTTB connections).
The price of NBN plans is always changing. After any introductory offers, you can expect to pay somewhere between $70 and $100 per month for a connection that will suffice for most households, but prices and needs differ.
For most homes, we'd recommend going with NBN 50 or NBN 100 (if you can get it). The faster NBN 100 plans offer better bang-for-buck in terms of speed, as they're usually only slightly more expensive than NBN 50 plans. But if you're stuck with NBN 50, this can still suffice for a lot of households, as long as noone regularly downloads large files while others are online.
If you're looking for cheap NBN plans, here's a look at the cheapest NBN 25, NBN 50 and NBN 100 plans in our database, ranked by their monthly price for the first six months:
How do I know if I can get NBN 100 on FTTN?
As a rule of thumb, if your home is under 400m from the node, you might be able to sign up to NBN 100, though don't necessarily expect to get the full speeds. If it's between 400m and 700m from the node, you might only be able to achieve download speeds up to 60Mbps, which many ISPs might consider too slow for an NBN 100 plan.
If your house is more than 700m from the node, your NBN provider it's likely your provider won't let you subscribe to an NBN 100 plan, as you won't get the speeds you're paying for. And some providers have stopped offering NBN 100 to fixed-line services at all, restricting FTTN premises to NBN 50 or slower.
But, even if your home is within 400m of the node, the maximum speeds you'll experience on your plan will be dependent on:
- Proximity to the node (closer is still better)
- Your NBN plan and provider
- Congestion during peak hours (this is what is meant by 'evening speeds')
- The condition of telephone (or alternative) wiring within your building. This is not NBN's responsibility
Can I upgrade my FTTN connection?
A free upgrade program for FTTN and FTTC premises is currently underway, which allows people in eligible areas to upgrade to an FTTP connection for free on request, once work in that area is completed. Already, millions of premises are eligible for this free upgrade. To see if that includes you, check your address on NBN Co's website, and it should tell you if your address is eligible. If you're on FTTN and not eligible for an upgrade, you should be by the end of 2030.
If the upgrade is available at your address, you'll also need to sign up for at least an NBN 500 plan to qualify for the upgrade. NBN 500 plans have replaced NBN 100 plans for those on FTTP and HFC, offering five times faster download speeds and more than double the upload speeds for the same price.
If you can't wait for a free FTTP upgrade and moving isn't an option, NBN Co does allow you to request a paid individual premises upgrade. This is a rather costly affair, however. If you want to pay to upgrade to FTTP from FTTN ahead of schedule, you're looking at a fee in the tens of thousands dollars, depending on your property.
A cheaper alternative would be a 5G home internet plan, which we'll cover in more detail a bit further on. Home wireless 5G plans can be cheaper and faster than NBN 25, NBN 50 and NBN 100 plans, so are definitely worth considering.
What equipment will I need for FTTN NBN?
Since FTTN operates over existing internal wiring, older homes use the already-installed landline phone ports and in-wall copper wires from yesteryear. If your home is a newer build, it might have some form of fibre-optic cable or insulated copper wiring instead of old-school telephone wires, but the outlet itself will look pretty much the same.
Fibre to the Node doesn't require any special equipment installed or owned by NBN Co on your premises. But at some point a technician should have disabled all but one phone port in your home to limit interference and improve your connection.
For an FTTN connection, you need two pieces of hardware: a modem and a router. To make life easier, these are usually lumped into the same device, called a modem router – also called a modem/router, modem-router, and WiFi modem, among other things. The modem connects to the internet, while the router lets all your devices connect to the modem and creates your WiFi network.
Any modem, router, or modem router should come with some instructions on how to set it up securely, often included as a sticker on the underside.
The modem
The modem is what connects you to the internet via the NBN. For an FTTN premises, the NBN modem therefore needs to be compatible, but it almost definitely is. If it was sold in Australia or from the Australian wing of a manufacturer's website within the last nine or so years, it should be FTTN-ready (unless it's designed for Home Wireless internet). If you order one from overseas, it has to meet two requirements: it has to support "VDSL2" and meet NBN Co's UNI-DSL standards. Sometimes you can search the modem's name along with "NBN ready" to get your answer from an official source.
Once you have your modem, your FTTN NBN connection should be easy to set up. After your internet plan is active, you simply use an RJ11 phone cable (likely included in the box) to connect your modem or modem router to the phone socket. You'll also need to plug it into power.
The router
A modem can only connect to two things: your wall socket and one other device. A router can act as a hub for multiple devices, but can't connect directly to the internet. So, you connect a router to your modem and presto: it becomes the go-between for the modem and all your other devices. Your other devices will connect to your router using Wi-Fi or a wired ethernet connection.
A router can be built into your modem or separate. Standalone routers are often a better choice if your home's layout makes WiFi tricky, simply because they're often better quality than the combined modem routers you get from an ISP. In particular, mesh WiFi systems can work a treat for this – and only some mesh systems include a combined modem router unit.
We strongly recommend you change your router's default WiFi network name (RFID) and password, as well as the login password for the router. Sometimes these can be stolen from manufacturers in data breaches – and you definitely don't want to be on one of those lists. Just try to avoid using personal info for the RFID or password. The first helps to identify which network is yours to anyone in range, while the second makes for a weak password.
5G home internet as an alternative
Unhappy with your Fibre to the Node NBN connection, but don't want to wait until it's upgraded? If you have 5G coverage in your area, then 5G home internet can be a good alternative to FTTN – it might even be faster and cheaper than your current FTTN connection and plan.
It even usuallycomes in speed tiers, similar to the NBN. They are:
- 20Mbps or 25Mbps (like NBN 25)
- 50Mbps (like NBN 50)
- 100Mbps (like NBN 100)
- 200Mbps or 250Mbps
- Uncapped (generally ranging between 200Mbps to and 300Mbps, but can be much faster depending on your 5G coverage)
You'll notice that, unlike FTTN, 5G home internet can go well above 100Mbps for downloads, as long as 5G coverage in your area supports it.
But there aren't nearly as many providers. Of the 34 internet providers in our database, only Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, TPG, iiNet, SpinTel, and Yomojo offer 5G home internet plans.
Here's a look at 5G plans in our database, ordered by price:
|
Vodafone
$60/mth
Min. cost $60
Link not supplied
|
|
Telstra
$70/mth
Min. cost $35
Link not supplied
|
|
TPG
$29.99/mth
Min. cost $29.99
Link not supplied
|
|
iiNet
$39.99/mth
Min. cost $39.99
Link not supplied
|
|
Vodafone
$55/mth
Min. cost $55
Link not supplied
|
|
SpinTel
$55/mth
+ $25 Upfront
Min. cost $80
Link not supplied
|
|
Optus
$59/mth
Min. cost $59
Link not supplied
|
|
Yomojo
$75.90/mth
Min. cost $75.90
Link not supplied
|
|
Telstra
$80/mth
Min. cost $40
Link not supplied
|
|
TPG
Editor's Pick
$34.99/mth
Min. cost $34.99
Link not supplied
|
|
Optus
$45/mth
Min. cost $45
Link not supplied
|
|
iiNet
$49.99/mth
Min. cost $49.99
Link not supplied
|
|
Vodafone
$60/mth
Min. cost $60
Link not supplied
|
|
Yomojo
$84.90/mth
Min. cost $84.90
Link not supplied
|
|
#1
|
SpinTel
$89/mth
+ $25 Upfront
Min. cost $114
Link not supplied
|
|
#2
|
Optus
$89/mth
Min. cost $89
Link not supplied
|
|
#3
|
Telstra
Editor's Pick
$95/mth
Min. cost $47.50
Link not supplied
|
|
#4
|
Yomojo
$105.90/mth
Min. cost $105.90
Link not supplied
|
FAQs about FTTN
What happens in an outage?
If you're connected to the NBN over FTTN, internet and landline phone services won't work if there's a power outage at your place or a general NBN outage. Restoring power to your premises with an alternative power option won't do anything if the NBN is also experiencing an outage.
Do home phones work with FTTN?
The NBN has phased out old landline phone services and replaced them with similar services delivered by the internet, called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). You plug your handset into the "UNI-D" port on a VoIP-compatible modem router, which your provider will be able to send to you or which you can purchase separately. You might also use a VoIP adapter connected to your your NBN Connection Box.
What are typical evening speeds?
While all NBN providers resell access to the same network, maximum speeds during peak hours can vary between providers. As such, some providers have started advertising the speeds you can expect during peak hours. These are known as typical evening speeds.
Do I have to sign a contract for FTTN NBN?
No-contract plans have become the norm for all fixed-line NBN services, including Fibre to the Node. But there are still some contract options out there. You might also pick up a "free" modem as part of your plan, but if you do so, you'll need to stick around for a minimum term or pay a hardware fee. Some providers let you return the modem router to avoid the payment, but not all of them.
Got questions? We've got answers. Whether you want to know what the NBN is, how to connect, if you have to connect, how much it will cost, what the alternatives are, or something else entirely, check out our complete guide to the NBN.
SOURCES
1. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). "Market indicators report, June quarter 2026". June 2026.
2. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). "Market indicators report, June quarter 2021". June 2021.
3. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). "Broadband Speed Claims, Industry Guidance". July 2025.
4. NBN Co. "How we're tracking: August 2026". August 2026.
5. NBN Co. "NBN Co announces upgrades for remaining homes and businesses on Fibre to the Node". January 2025.
Alex Choros
Thousands of internet plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
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