Australians are being urged to check their NBN plans as telcos pass through “unfair” price hikes this week under which standard plans top $100 a month for the first time.

The likes of Telstra, Optus, Dodo and Aussie Broadband have all been contacting customers about price hikes that will affect an estimated 70 per cent of customers across the nation.

WhistleOut’s Joel Gibson said the price increases on standard plans range from $1 to $5 a month, while some higher speed plans have become slightly cheaper.

“In a cost-of-living crisis, it’s deeply unfair to ask households with smaller budgets below $100/month to pay more while giving wealthier households price cuts and higher speeds,” he said.

“NBN Co is trying to incentivise Australians to upgrade their speeds, but they need to read the room.

“Right now Australians simply cannot afford bigger internet bills.”

Speed price split

The internet price hikes are the last thing millions of Australian households need right now, particularly with other bills such as electricity, gas and insurance also squeezing budgets.

They stem from changes to wholesale arrangements between the taxpayer-owned NBN Co and telco giants that were flagged last year and sparked a sizeable controversy at the time.

Experts have said NBN Co. is attempting to recoup billions in cost blowouts from building the nation’s fibre network and that the revised prices are ultimately part of a strategy to do that.

But the shaving in prices for higher speeds also suggest a desire to push families to upgrade.

For example, the price of Telstra’s most popular NBN 50 Mbps plans will rise $5 a month to $105 from July, but the price of its fastest plans over $100 Mbps will fall $5 a month to $130.

Optus’ standard plan will rise from $4 a month to $89, while Dodo will become $3.90 more expensive to $83.90 a month.

Aussie Broadband moves up $4 to $89 a month and Superloop will be $81 a month from July ($2 more expensive).

Cheaper plans

Just over a quarter of households (26 per cent) are on plans of 25 Mbps, while 43 per cent are on 50 Mbps plans, meaning the majority of Australians are getting a price hike.

Far fewer customers are on faster plans, with just 26 per cent on 100 Mbps plans and only 3 per cent on super-fast 250 Mbps plans, meaning only a minority of Australians will experience price falls.

The price changes come as Australians use more internet data than ever, with the average household now using 22 devices a month across about 400 gigabytes (GB) of data.

That’s up from seven devices and just 40GB of data 10 years ago.

The good news is that if you’re sitting on a deal with a major telco and haven’t checked your plan in a while, it’s likely there are some ways to save.

The cheapest NBN plans available at a standard 50 Mbps speed are under $60, which is almost half the price of Telstra, according to WhistleOut’s database.