Now that working from home has become the new “normal” our home internet use has changed forever.
In the past, home internet use has been associated with relaxing activities like watching movies, surfing the net and playing video games. Now that a decent proportion of the population are working from home at least one day a week, the home internet connection has become more important. Having reliable internet at home is now vital.
Finding the best NBN internet plan to suit your working from home needs can be a challenge. With so many providers and so many different plans, it can be hard to know where to start. But don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ve put together a list of the best broadband internet plans for working from home, so you can find the perfect one for you.
We’ve already discussed in detail the internet speed you need for working from home but this articles dives deeper into what NBN plans are best for working from home.
Before we can start searching for working from home friendly NBN plans, we need to answer the following questions:
- What Internet speed (bandwidth) do I need for working from home?
- How much data does working from home actually use?
- What is ping and latency and why is it important for your home office?
What internet connection speed do I need for working from home?
First, let’s determine what connection speed is required for the common working from home tasks.
Task | Internet Speed Required |
---|---|
checking email | 1 Mbps |
browsing web pages | 5 Mbps |
video conferencing | 5 Mbps |
watching online video content | 10 Mbps |
As you can see from the table above, you don’t need a super fast internet connection to work from home.
How much data do you need for working from home?
Next, we need to know how much data working from home chews through each hour.
The table below shows the data use per hour of some common working from home tasks:
Task | Data usage per hour |
---|---|
checking email | 20 MB per hour |
browsing web pages | 100 MB per hour |
video conferencing | 1.6 GB per hour |
watching online video content (HD) | 3 GB per hour |
You can see from the table above that checking email and surfing the web uses negligible data but video conferencing and streaming video content uses a significant amount of data.
So how much data do I need per month then?
Let’s look at some different working from home scenarios with different levels of video conferencing and see how much data is needed for each one.
Days per week working from home | Hour per day on video conference | Data required per month |
---|---|---|
2 days | 2 hours per day | 26 GB |
2 days | 6 hours per day | 77 GB |
4 days | 2 hours per day | 51 GB |
4 days | 6 hours per day | 153 GB |
5 days | 2 hours per day | 64 GB |
5 days | 6 hours per day | 192 GB |
Based on the information in the table above you will see that monthly data use varies quite considerably depending on how much video conference you undertake as part of your job.
If you can stream movies smoothly then working from home should be a breeze
Since working from home uses about the same resources as watching Netflix I suppose you could say that if you can stream movies smoothly and without any buffering on your internet connection, they you should be able to work from home without any issues.
Why is ping and latency important for working from home?
Ping is the delay between data being sent from your computer and and your computer receiving a response from a server on the internet. Latency and ping are often used interchangeably but technically ping refers to the signal sent from the device to the server and latency is the time it takes for the ping to return to the device. Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms) and the lower the ping rate the smoother video conferencing will be.
High latency or ping times can cause poor quality voice and video during video conferencing and can have a very significant effect on the effectiveness of communications.
A ping rate under 100 ms is good and is desirable for working from home.
Ping | Video Conferencing |
---|---|
<15ms | Excellent |
15ms – 50ms | Great |
50ms – 100ms | Good |
100ms – 250ms | Bad – video conferencing will be affected |
>250ms | Terrible |
Optimal NBN Plan for working from home
Based on the analysis above we have summarised our findings in the table below:
Situation | Download speed required | Data required per month |
---|---|---|
1 person working from home part time | 25 Mbps | 100 GB |
1 person working from home full time | 25 Mbps | 200 GB |
2 or more people working from home part time | 50 Mbps | 200 GB |
2 or more people working from home full time | 50 Mbps | Unlimited |
Our Recommendation
For an NBN plan for working from home, we recommend a download speed of at least 25 Mbps for 1 person working from home and 50 Mbps if there is 2 people or more. With regard to data quota, for 1 person we recommend at least 200GB to allow for some spare capacity for Netflix on the weekends and for multiple people working from home we recommend Unlimited data.
If you find yourself running out of data or needing more speed, you can always upgrade your plan at a later date. Starting small is always the most cost effective solution.
Recommended NBN Plans for working from home
These NBN plans are fast, have plenty of data and all receive excellent reviews from our members. They would be great plans for anyone wanting to work from home.
Company | Plan Name |
Monthly Cost |
Avg Monthly Cost (2 years) |
Typical Evening Speed | Quota | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Exetel |
Everyday (NBN) (Month by month) |
$63.99
$50.99 for first 6 months |
$60.74 | 25 Mb/s | Unlim |
Read Reviews |
![]() Superloop |
Everyday (NBN) (Month by month) |
$69
$59 for first 6 months |
$66.5 | 25 Mb/s | Unlim |
Read Reviews |
![]() Vodafone |
Basic (NBN) (Month by month) |
$70 | $70 | 25 Mb/s | Unlim |
Read Reviews |
![]() activ8me |
Premium 50 (NBN - Satellite) (Month by month) |
$74 | $74 | 29 Mb/s | Unlim |
Read Reviews |
![]() iinet |
NBN25 (NBN) (Month by month) |
$74.99 | $74.99 | 25 Mb/s | Unlim |
Read Reviews |
Click here to view more great value NBN internet plans for working from home |
Can I work from home with a 4G or 5G wireless broadband connection?
The short answer is Yes, but if it is a long term arrangement and you experience some dropouts we would recommend switching to the NBN. 4G and 5G wireless broadband can definitely satisfy all the requirements of working from home but your actual connection speed and reliability will depend on how congested the mobile network is in your area. 4G and 5G connection speeds can vary considerably from area to area.
Recommended Wireless 4G and 5G Plans for working from home
These plans are great for anyone wanting to work from home.
Company | Plan Name |
Monthly Cost |
Avg Monthly Cost (2 years) |
Typical Evening Speed | Quota | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Moose Mobile |
100GB (Wireless - 5G) (Month by month) |
$29.8 | $29.8 | 50 Mb/s | 100 GB |
Read Reviews |
![]() Tangerine |
100GB (Wireless - 5G) (Month by month) |
$34.9 | $34.9 | 100 Mb/s | Unlim |
Read Reviews |
![]() Belong |
100GB Mobile Broadband (Wireless - 5G) (Month by month) |
$35 | $35 | 150 Mb/s | 100 GB |
Read Reviews |
More |
100GB (Wireless - 5G) (Month by month) |
$40 | $40 | 150 Mb/s | 100 GB |
Read Reviews |
![]() Moose Mobile |
200GB (Wireless - 5G) (Month by month) |
$45.8 | $45.8 | 50 Mb/s | 200 GB |
Read Reviews |
Click here to view more great value wireless internet plans for working from home |
If you are not happy with the performance of your NBN plan for working from home, you may want to check out or NBN plan comparison tool which lets you compare all the NBN plans available in Australia.