iPrimus Review – Speed, Value and Two Decades of Experience

There was a time, years ago, when the only choice Australian consumers had for a telecommunications provider were Telstra and Optus. When Primus entered the market in 1997, it was a comfortable duopoly with nobody around to shake things up. Primus started out offering an alternative phone service and by 1999, iPrimus arrived. It was an option for those wanting the convenience of a phone and internet bundle at a much lower price.

As a provider, iPrimus Broadband made one crucial step early on – they got their own broadband hardware into as many local phone exchanges as possible. They could then offer dedicated Primus services, bundling iPrimus broadband and Primus home phone – all without the cost of renting exchange capacity from Telstra. At the time it was a pretty big deal. It reduced costs for customers, and gave iPrimus the chance to start building their own network of connections between the ISP and the exchanges that served their customers.

The result was reliable, fast broadband that pushed the limits of whatever speed of ADSL connection it was running on. Behind the scenes, iPrimus made sure their network was as fast and responsive as possible, hosting the major download providers in their own data centre and ensuring customers got fast access to popular websites and large downloads.

iPrimus was then bought by experienced network provider M2, who made further steps to speed up internet access. More recently, it was bought by the hugely respected top-tier network provider Vocus. Customers have benefited from reduced prices and a network with the same high quality service it’s offered for many years.

Today, iPrimus has broadband connections for NBN and ADSL, along with SIM-only mobile phone plans. By embracing the streaming TV age, iPrimus is also offering TV services using the much-admired Fetch TV platform.

And in August 2017, they’re actually giving new clients $100 credit when subscribing to their unlimited plans. A pretty sweet deal, especially if you’re hunting for a new ISP. After all, the NBN is rollout is going great, so it’s understandable if you’re looking to make a change. The number of premises ready for service almost doubled from 2.9 million to 5.7 million in the last year, according to numbers released this month.

When it comes to Australia’s NBN, iPrimus has made some interesting choices. The real price differential is the speed of your connection, rather than your amount of data. iPrimus will happily connect you to the new national network at what appears to be an incredibly low price, but those plans come with some heavy download restrictions making them impractical for all but the lightest users. There’s three download-limit tiers and within each of those three NBN speed tiers. The download limit on the lowest tier is a punishing – 30GB a month. That may not sound too bad, but if you’re even a casual user of anything requiring a lot of data – from Netflix and Stan to YouTube or Twitch – you’re going to feel the pinch very quickly. Buy your games online – on Xbox, PS4 or PC? You’ll quickly find that a 30GB limit won’t even cover the download requirements of one game. That plan is very much for light users only. Those who browse the web, comment on Facebook and get their visual entertainment from free-to-air TV.

The next tier up has a 300GB limit – much more reasonable if you’re an occasional user who downloads games, movies, or watches Netflix. You can enjoy your favourite streaming shows and download games. Basically do all the other stuff the internet has to offer and not touch 300GB of usage. If you’re a regular user, this may be the plan for you. You’ll still need to keep an eye on your data as modern media is more data-hungry than ever before.

Then there’s the top-tier plan with unlimited data. It’s very liberating to download or stream whatever you want. And to never worry about limits. iPrimus themselves highly recommend this plan for “high quality video content” like HD movies.

As always with the NBN, what you pay per month depends on your connection speed. At the low end, the 30GB plan running on the minimum 12/1 NBN connection (with that limit, you wouldn’t want it any faster) will cost $44.90/month. At the top end, a 100/40 connection with unlimited downloads is $109.90/month. That may sound a little more expensive than some competitor offerings, but iPrimus has some very real advantages. Their network speed in Australia is lightning-fast. Servers for Netflix, Stan, Blizzard, EA and many others are in data centres only a couple of hops away from your home connection, making access seamless and super-fast (for example; select a Netflix show on Apple TV and it’s in full HD from the start). Peak-time congestion is there (like it is for every ISP), true. But they manage it well, and having your 100 Mbps NBN connection slow to “only” 75 Mbps is something you won’t even notice.

iPrimus still offers good old ADSL connections, and with no speed tiers to choose from (your speed depends on how far you are from the exchange, as well as the condition of your phone line). You’ve got a choice between the same three data limits – 30GB, 300GB or unlimited, with prices at $54.90, $69.90 and $79.90 respectively. Having done away with separate pricing for ADSL connections to non-iPrimus hardware, you know exactly what you’ll be paying regardless of whether or not your exchange has iPrimus hardware.

NBN and ADSL connections both come with a landline number and “line rental” included. There’s also unlimited local and national calls (but not calls to mobiles). iPrimus supplies the NBN version of this service through a custom VOIP modem they provide with your connection. The modem is free if you agree to a two-year contract, otherwise there’s a small fee.

iPrimus is now offering Fetch TV support. You can add Fetch TV to your broadband plan and get a Fetch TV Mighty box (for $15/month), as well as channel packs to suit your tastes (from $6/month). Special interest packs also available.

The technical quality of service offered by iPrimus has been superb for many years. They continue to provide a solid, reliable and fast service. iPrimus may not be the cheapest contender on the block. But their behind-the-scenes advantage of top-tier network access makes them a brilliant choice. Especially if you spend a lot of time on the internet.