Optus lifts NBN 25 and NBN 50 prices from 6 July

Optus will raise the monthly price of its two cheapest NBN plans from 6 July, pushing up the cost of entry-level broadband for customers on its NBN 25 and NBN 50 tiers.

In a support notice, Optus said NBN 25 would rise by $4 a month from $79 to $83, while NBN 50 would increase by $2 from $95 to $97. That adds $48 a year for NBN 25 customers and $24 for NBN 50 customers if they stay on the same plan for 12 months.

The telco’s NBN plan page now carries the July pricing notes beside the current advertised rates. Faster Optus plans are unchanged, so the repricing is aimed at the lower-speed end of the line-up rather than the full broadband range.

For households on cheaper fixed-broadband plans, that is the core point. The monthly service stays the same. The bill goes up.

Optus has given customers about six weeks’ notice before the higher charges take effect. That makes this a scheduled repricing, not a mid-cycle adjustment, but it still lands in the part of the market where a few dollars a month can influence whether customers stay put, switch retailer or drop to a lower speed tier.

The faster plans are staying put.

That selective move suggests Optus is trying to pass through higher network costs without disturbing the plans that face the sharpest comparison shopping. Premium tiers often carry the headline offers in broadband advertising; entry tiers are where small increases can be spread across a large base of price-sensitive customers.

Independent broadband publication WhistleOut reported the same two-plan increase and said only the cheaper end of Optus’ line-up was affected. That lines up with a broader retail pattern in which providers protect the sticker price on faster plans while recovering some cost pressure further down the table.

A similar approach has already shown up at Telstra, whose cheapest NBN plans were repriced earlier this year, according to WhistleOut’s earlier reporting. Optus is not lifting every speed tier, but the overlap suggests wholesale pressure is reaching consumers first through basic plans rather than the premium end of the market.

The broader significance is less about one month’s bill than the direction of travel. When major retailers keep returning to entry-level tiers for price rises, the cheapest end of fixed broadband stops getting quite as cheap, even when the monthly increase looks small in isolation.

From 6 July, the immediate outcome is straightforward: Optus customers on NBN 25 and NBN 50 will pay more each month, while customers on faster plans will stay on current pricing. The dollar increase is modest, but it extends a repricing cycle that is nudging basic NBN service higher across Australia.