Belong NBN review

Generally speaking, Belong's NBN plans are par for the course. Its Starter (NBN 25) Standard Plus (NBN 50) and Premium (NBN 100) plans offer average value for money - they're not the cheapest plans on the market, but they're also far from being the most expensive.

To put those prices into context, here's how Belong's $70 per month NBN 50 plan stacks up against the cheapest plans on the market.

Additionally, it's important to note that customers are unable to bring their own modem for use with a Belong plan. Instead, you'll have to pay $60 upfront (or $5 per month over 12 months) for Belong's provided modem, though are frequent promotions offering the modem for free.

The one major setback in Belong's suite of plans is the restrictions placed at the premium end. Belong only offers its Fast NBN 100 plan to FTTP (Fibre-to-the-Premises), FTTC (Fibre-to-the-Curb) and HFC (Hybrid-Fibre Coaxial) customers, meaning a large number Australians can only sign up to the Standard NBN 50 at most. That's not a huge loss, as Belong's Fast plan isn't the most competitive anyway, and you'd be better served going with another provider at the premium end. In addition to that, Belong's self-reports typical evening speeds of 95Mbps for Fast users, which lags slightly behind most of the competition.

Here's a short list of Fast NBN 100 plans, ordered by expected evening speeds.

After a shakeup in 2021, Belong's NBN plan speeds are now much closer to the maximum theoretical speeds offered by each NBN tier. Those who opt for the Starter Plan can expect max speeds of 25Mbps, while those on Belong's Standard Plus and Premium plans are a few Mbps behind top speed. For most people, those few Mbps won't be a dealbreaker, but there is still room for improvement.

In fact, when we look at NBN 50 plans, just about every other cheaper provider offers the full 50Mbps for a smaller monthly fee.

If you're already a Belong NBN customer and you came here wondering why your connection is slow, try testing your internet speed with the tool below. If your speeds aren't meeting expectations, consider switching to a faster NBN plan.

As Telstra's budget alternative, Belong doesn't have a lot of premium features. It's got the basics, like no-contract options and some benefits for bundling a Belong SIM plan ($80 free mobile credit at the time of writing) but that's about it. It doesn't offer mobile internet plans, home phone bundles, pay-TV bundles, or any other perks and rewards (discounts, exclusive content offers etc.). Belong also doesn't offer any Superfast or Ultrafast plans, losing a couple more points in the perks and features analysis.

If you're after a provider that offers all the perks and features, you'll pay a good deal more. Telstra offers all that and more, but its Ultrafast plan starts at $180 per month.

If you're interested in NBN 250 (Superfast), take a look at the most popular options available to select FTTP and HFC customers.

While some providers also offer home wireless internet plans (ie, plans that use the same 4G and 5G networks as your mobile phone as an alternative to NBN) Belong currently just offers NBN plans.

If you're interested in a home wireless internet connection, you can compare some popular plans from other providers below.

If you need to get in touch with Belong, you can get in touch with their customer support team via Facebook, phone, live chat or email, or by clicking the link above to their support page. There just isn't any brick-and-mortar stores you can reach out to if you run into trouble. For the number of support channels available, Belong's score is typical amongst internet providers but where it takes a dive is in its customer satisfaction metrics. With a Trustpilot rating of 2.7 stars and a Product Review score of just 1.6 out of 5, Belong is firmly at the low end of the spectrum.

Providers that scored highly for customer satisfaction included Mate Broadband, Tangerine, Aussie Broadband and Internode. Here are a few popular plans from those providers.

We scour the NBN plans in our system to compare to find the best. We take into consideration things like cost, connection, customer service, features and benefits and internet speeds.