Southern Phone NBN plans review

Southern Phone offers several NBN plans, including bundled options that let you package internet with a home phone. The trade-off there, though, is those plans have 24-month contracts and/or limited data. Because the trend these days is for no-contract, unlimited-data plans for fixed-line NBN in metro areas, our plan analysis is focused on Southern Phone’s three NBN plans that don’t have any contracts and come with unlimited monthly data.

The first NBN plan Southern Phone offers is the Unlimited NBN Standard plan, which has a flat fee of $65 per month and comes with excellent 25Mbps self-reported typical evening download speeds. These 25Mbps NBN evening speeds are also the max speed for NBN 25 (NBN Basic II) plans.

While $65 per month isn’t the worst price to pay for an NBN 25 plan, there are more than a few other NBN providers in our comparison engine that offer better value. Tangerine’s Standard Speed Unlimited plan has the same 25Mbps download speeds, plus its regular $59.90 monthly pricing is bolstered by a long-running $44.90 monthly fee for the first six months. Dodo NBN, Spintel and Superloop also regularly offer six months of promo pricing, while Kogan Internet and TPG offer cheaper monthly pricing. All of these providers have the same 25Mbps download speeds.

You’re better off considering any of the plans from these providers, particularly the ones with promo pricing, before going with the Southern Phone Unlimited NBN Standard plan. For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular unlimited-data, no-contract NBN 25 plans.

Southern Phone’s next plan is the Unlimited NBN Turbo offering, which is an NBN 50 plan that costs $75 a month for 47Mbps self-reported typical evening download speeds.

It’s an even longer scroll in our comparison engine to find this Southern Phone NBN 50 plan, with plenty of other options with the same download speeds and even better monthly pricing. Spintel, Tangerine, Dodo, Superloop and MyRepublic all have a tendency of offering regularly renewed promotional pricing for the first six months. Meanwhile, Kogan, TPG and iiNet offer better monthly pricing for the same 50Mbps evening speeds.

The main reason to consider the Southern Phone Unlimited NBN Turbo plan at the time of updating this review was the limited-time offer of two free months, but even Spintel and Tangerine offered plans that had cheaper first-year pricing when you factor in this Southern Phone promo. You’re better off considering Spintel, Tangerine or Superloop’s NBN 50 plans for better value.

For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular NBN 50 plans, all of which have unlimited data and no contracts.

Southern Phone also offers the Unlimited NBN Max plan, which is an NBN 100 plan that costs $85 a month and has 100Mbps self-reported typical evening download speeds.

Familiar providers return to offer better value NBN 100 plans, with Spintel, Superloop, Tangerine being the top three picks care of ongoing promotional pricing, not to mention faster speeds: 100Mbps for Spintel and Superloop, and 92Mbps for Tangerine. Meanwhile, Dodo, iPrimus, MyRepublic, Kogan and TPG also offer cheaper monthly pricing and faster download speeds.

At the time of updating this review, Southern Phone had the same limited-time deal where the first two months were free, but Spintel still has cheaper first-year pricing (not to mention faster download speeds), so you’re better off going with that NBN 100 plan.

For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular NBN 100 plans that don’t have contracts but do have unlimited monthly data.

For those in rural and regional areas, Southern Phone also offers two NBN Fixed Wireless plans, both of which come with no contract and unlimited data.

The NBN Standard plan is an NBN 25 offering that costs $65 a month.

Tangerine, Dodo and Spintel offer better first-year pricing and better monthly value on their Fixed Wireless plans. For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular NBN 25 Fixed Wireless plans with unlimited data.

Southern Phone also has the NBN Fixed Wireless Plus, which is an NBN 100 plan that costs $75 a month.

While it’s a decent price point for Fixed Wireless Plus, Tangerine, Spintel and Mate offer cheaper monthly pricing. For comparison, below is a daily updating list of popular Fixed Wireless Plus plans.

Southern Phone also offers three satellite plans, which range from 50GB of data for $70 a month to 150GB of data for $190 a month. You can check out all three Southern Phone NBN satellite plans here.

Southern Phone is also an Optus MVNO that sells SIM Only plans, which range from 5GB for $10 per month to $45 per month for 80GB of data. You can see all four Southern Phone SIM Only plans below.

Outside of NBN and SIM Only plans, Southern Phone also offers four mobile broadband plans, which have 12-month contracts and range from $15 per month for 7GB of data to 100GB of data for $65 per month. You can see all four Southern Phone mobile broadband plans below.

There’s a trend for NBN providers to not offer much in the way of perks, focusing instead on competing across standard inclusions like no contracts, unlimited data and increasingly faster self-reported typical evening download speeds. Southern Phones does offer some additional perks, like being able to bundle a landline phone service or pay a $99 fee for a WiFi modem.

If you fancy a perkier provider, consider Aussie Broadband or MyRepublic.

If you have any questions or things go wrong with your Southern Phone NBN connection, there are a handful of ways to reach out to the provider. For starters, you can get a speedy reply via Facebook Messenger chat or live chat on the Southern Phone website. The website also offers self-service support, alternatively, you can email the provider via the info@southernphone.net.au email address or call them on 13 14 64 between 8am to 8pm (AEST) seven days a week.

In terms of reported customer satisfaction, it’s quite low on consumer review websites. Product Review’s listing for Southern Phone Broadband (which encompasses NBN and mobile broadband) is at 1.7 out of 5 stars after 1,300+ reviews. This overall score breaks down into 2.2 for value, 1.9 for customer service, and 2 for transparency. At the time of updating this review, a majority of consumers on Product Review felt that Southern Phone speeds were not adequate.

Meanwhile, Trustpilot has a lot less in the way of reviews (only five at the time of updating this review), but it had a score of 2.5 out of 5. In fairness, these reviews are a mix of mobile and broadband feedback.

If you fancy buying an NBN plan from a provider with great reported customer satisfaction, go with Mate, Aussie Broadband or Internode.

Click the ‘Go’ button next to the Southern Phone NBN plan you like the look of below to be taken to the Southern Phone website. Once there, click ‘Check Address’ beneath the plan you want to sign up for, then enter your address to see if you’re in a supported area. Select ‘Purchase Now’ on the plan you like, then follow the prompts to complete sign-up.

You can see Southern Phone’s three no-contract, unlimited-data NBN plans below.