Telco Aussie Broadband will start offering gigabit download speeds for home addresses this week in line with an expected change in NBN’s wholesale pricing.

The 1000/50 Mbps ‘ultra-fast’ plans will be available for customers on the NBN’s fibre to the premise (FTTP) and some using hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) technology.

Aussie Broadband managing director, Phillip Britt, said the company would be marketing the gigabit plans as having a 250Mbps max speed, rather than the theoretical 1Gbps.

“This is a best effort service and peak evening speeds will vary based on network demand at the time,” he said.

“We think that the plan should achieve off-peak speeds of up to 80-90%, depending on the technology type.

“For the moment, we will be advising customers our peak evening speeds for our 250Mbps plans as a baseline until we have collated enough data from our own network testing.”

The ACCC requires that telcos advertise NBN speeds according to typical peak times so that customers aren’t misled by suggested internet speeds speeds.

“One of the benefits of having ultra-fast internet is that it supports multiple users on multiple devices – all at once,” Britt said.

“Ultimately we believe that these speeds will give incredibly fast connectivity for customers who want the highest possible speed available.”

Aussie Broadbands warned that run-of-the-mill routers won’t be able to cope with the gigabit speeds and recommends Google’s Nest Wifi which Google claims can connect up to 200 devices simultaneously.

Unfortunately, gigabit internet will remain a fantasy for the millions of Australian homes locked out of high speeds by the NBN's technology mix.

By the time the NBN rollout is complete, NBN Co expects only around 2.2. million premises will be ready to connect by FTTP technology with another 2.5 million remaining on HFC.

Out of the 12 million premises to be connected, 4.7 million will be on fibre to the node or basement (FTTN/B) with speeds up to 100Mbps but which fizzle out the further you are from the fibre-connected node.

The ACCC’s latest NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report shows that Australians' appetite for data is growing.

Just over 65 per cent of all NBN customers are connected to services with speeds of 50Mbps or higher.

Since December 2017, the number of homes connecting to the NBN on 50Mbps plans increased by more than 3.8 million.