I Paid an Extra $40 a Month for “Super Speed” Internet. It Didn’t Fix a Thing. Here’s What I Should Have Checked First

I did something recently that I suspect a good number of you have also done, or been tempted to do. Sick of watching that little spinning wheel of death freeze my screen mid-video-call, I rang my provider, upgraded to their “super speed” plan, and started paying $100 a month instead of $60. I fully expected the problem to vanish.

It didn’t. My internet is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as it was before I started paying an extra $480 a year for it.

So I went looking for an explanation, and it turns out I’d made one of the most common, and most expensive, mistakes in home internet: assuming a faster plan automatically fixes a slow-feeling connection. Often, it doesn’t, and understanding why has saved me from making the same mistake again.

The bit nobody explains properly: download speed isn’t the whole story

Every internet plan advertises two numbers, something like “100/20” or “500/50.” The first number is your download speed, how quickly you can stream, browse and load websites. The second, smaller number is your upload speed, how quickly you can send data out, which matters for things like video calls, sending large photos or backing up files.

According to consumer group CHOICE, most households actually upload far less data than they download in a typical week, and rarely need it done quickly. Even a household streaming plenty of video and doing regular video calls is generally well served by an upload speed of just 20 to 50Mbps. If your “wheel of death” is happening on something like a video call, the culprit is very often the upload side of your connection, or something else entirely, rather than your download speed, which is usually the number providers push hardest when trying to sell you a bigger, more expensive plan.

The real culprit, more often than not: your router

Here’s the detail that would have saved me $40 a month, and it’s the one most people, myself included, never think to check. According to CHOICE’s own guidance, older WiFi routers simply cannot deliver the higher speeds available on newer NBN plans, regardless of what you’re paying for. Depending on the age of your router, you may be capped at around 100Mbps no matter which plan you’re on. If your router is several years old, or came free with a much older plan, it may be the actual bottleneck, not your internet plan at all.

CHOICE recommends most typical homes should be using a WiFi 6, 6E, or WiFi 7 router to properly take advantage of faster NBN speeds. If you’ve had the same modem or router sitting in the corner for the past five or six years, there’s a genuine chance it’s quietly limiting everything, regardless of what you’re paying your provider each month.

Where you’ve placed that router matters too. Thick walls, distance from the router, and interference from other devices can all noticeably slow down your WiFi, even with a perfectly good plan and a perfectly good router. Simply moving your router to a more central, open position in the house can make a genuine difference.

What speed do people like us actually need?

For most people in our age bracket, particularly if it’s just you, or you and a partner, using the internet for the everyday things, email, banking, video calls with the grandkids, streaming a show in the evening, you almost certainly don’t need the fastest, most expensive plan on offer. As a general guide:

NBN 25 or 50 is genuinely enough for one or two people doing typical browsing, emailing, and standard-definition streaming.

NBN 100 comfortably covers a household with a couple of people streaming HD video, video calling regularly, and browsing at the same time.

NBN 250 or above is really only worth the extra cost for larger households with several people streaming or gaming simultaneously, or households with someone working from home who needs to transfer large files regularly.

Even Zoom, for context, only recommends an upload speed of 3 to 4Mbps for a smooth HD video call with one other person. Most of us are paying for vastly more speed than we’re actually using on a daily basis.

What I’d suggest doing before you spend a cent more

Run a proper speed test first, ideally with a device connected directly to the router via cable, to see what you’re actually getting versus what you’re paying for.

Check the age of your router. If it’s more than four or five years old, that’s genuinely worth investigating before blaming your plan.

Try moving your router to a more central, unobstructed spot in the house, away from thick walls and other electronics.

Call your provider and ask directly whether your current router supports the plan you’re paying for, before agreeing to any upgrade.

Downgrade if you’re not using it. If, like me, you’ve been sold a bigger plan that hasn’t actually fixed anything, it’s worth calling your provider back and asking to step back down, at least until you’ve ruled out the router and placement as the real problem.

I’ll be having exactly that conversation with my own provider this week. I’d rather have my $40 a month back and a properly positioned router than a bigger number on my bill that hasn’t actually changed a thing.