Telstra’s rolling out a free NBN speed upgrade to users on its slower plans

UPDATE: Telstra has confirmed that all 25Mbps/5Mbps customers will receive the upgrade.

Telstra has announced that it will upgrade close to a million of its NBN customers to a faster speed tier at no additional cost.

Over 850,000 users on the NBN 25 plan (25Mbps/5Mbps, download/upload speeds) will have their plan upgraded over the next few months to the NBN 50 plan (50Mbps/20Mbps) as the company begins to offer its Standard Plus tier as the new flagship service.

Home and business customers don’t need to do anything to access the upgrade – Telstra will automatically perform the switch in the background and notify users on the 25Mbps plan when it’s been completed.

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Eternal internet

For all new customers signing up to a home or small business NBN bundle, they’ll not only receive this Standard Plus tier by default, but they’ll also score the newly announced Telstra Smart Modem.

This particular modem has advanced Wi-Fi capabilities, but more impressively, it comes with an integrated 4G connection that allows you to use the modem when your regular connection is down. That's a handy feature for when you're moving house or first switching to the NBN, meaning you’ll never be without internet.

It is, however, worth noting that the maximum speed of the backup 4G connection is capped at 6Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps upload, and they "may vary", so it is definitely intended as a backup.