Southern Phone NBN 250/25 (Superfast)

Final Decision/Recommendation: I can no longer recommend them and that is why I have now moved to another provider (Launtel) after many years with Southern phone. I have moved to a 1st tier provider that is more expensive, about 10%. If you want lower pricing, have simple internet connectivity needs then they may be a suitable supplier. How… Read more

they compare to other tier 2/3 lower cost providers is the key issue here.

Summary: A second tier NBN provider: lower pricing; lower quality service support (08:00 - 18:00 NSW time, less experienced support); less features; more difficult to deal with technically and for support. No IPv6 support. Lower reliability. They use overseas support Centre but elevate to more experienced local support if required. Support times were acceptable about 5 minutes to connect on phone and the overseas personnel were easy to understand.

When their service operated it provided performance better than expected, the 250/25 plan gave 272/23 MB/s, a faster on average on download and slower on upload, but basically as advertised. The average ping time was good at 2 to 3 ms and jitter and latency were also good. This is why I gave then 3 stars.

Detailed: I had been using Southern phone for residential internet connectivity over 5 years after they took over MyNetPhone, all up more than 10 years. I primarily stuck with them because they were a lower price option and they did try to help with support, but it was often frustrating.

I had consistent problems with Southern phone related to my need for a static IP address. This got better after I was connected NBN FTTP early 2024, although they managed to leave me disconnected for about 5 weeks during the transfer from FTTN to FTTP as one their technicians did not listen and understand the requirements. Also, they do not provide native IPv6 connectivity/IP address.

Early August 2025 my internet connection dropped out, the IPoE DHCP was not connecting, my experience and technical analysis indicated this problem was on their side. The first attempt to contact them in the late afternoon did not resolve the problem. The following morning the service technician made me jump through a number of hoops, reset NBN modem, reset router, connect directly modem to computer none of which worked. He then had me hard reset the ISP router, after which I got connection. When checked later in the evening I found that my static IP address had changed, and the connection was via pppoe. Resetting the router also reset my port forwarding setup too. I called support the following morning and was told the previous technician had disabled my static IP address without telling me. The issued would be raised to backend support to reinstate my static IP address and IPoE. I followed up 2 days later and was told a technician would ring me back. After not hearing back, I tried another service provider. Based upon what had happened and the history with Southern phone I got the impression that they really did not want nor were not properly setup for my business (re: static IP).

Note when I connected to new provider, that took about 15 minutes to login and setup an account and then less then 20mins to get new NBN connection on the second port of the NBN modem. The IPoE connection worked immediately, it was shocking after Southern phone hassles. The IPoeE connection DHCP lease/renewal time was about 40minutes, versus about 5minutes for Southern phone. I logged on to the new provider portal and selected the option for static IP address, that was included in the free trial. The provider portal was clear, featureful, succinct and relevant, updated fast and easy to use and worked reliably, in the past 4 days. The new provider gave 1 week free no obligation trial. Lastly, the new provider had a deposit option for the static IP address that basically made if free, meaning the effective cost different from tier 2 to tier 1 supplier was 5 to 10%.

My normal router is a x86 based computer running Linux, using NFTables for firewall, NAT and port forwarding and containerised Bind9 for local DNS and ISC-Kea DHCP for local DHCP, with dual back-up on separate hardware for the DNS and DHCP services. Also configured via command line, no gui or web interfaces used. Whenever I get problems, I plug in a consumer grade modem/router from the ISP. Of the dozens of times I have had connectivity problems with Southern phone over the years all but one was on their end!!!!!!

I would consider myself and expert user, with significant non-professional IT experience of over 40 years. Dealing with the usual front support can be very frustrating.

Moved house & expected to take old NBN provider but after a lot of problems decided to find another provider. Signed up for Southern Phone NBN. Techy was supposed to arrive at 8 am. I received a message at 9.40 stating someone is on their way. No one arrived. I rang at 12 to let them know their technician did not show up. The man from Southern… Read more

Phone told me the technician had been here for 2 hours and had to leave because he didn’t have the right equipment. This man became argumentative telling me that the technician had been to my house. Then i was told he would arrive between 12- 6.(mind you i had to take the day off work). Received a message at 5.25 saying tech is on their way. Again no one arrived. Don’t waste your time with this company

Don't waste your money, stay clear – Sign up for Superfast service, recording 10.37/9.3 This is during non peak periods, constantly dropping out for hours at a time. Constantly having to hotspot to my mobile to complete simple tasks. Unable to consciously recommend Southern Phone. Never again. Show details

hopeless do not go here – superfast my backside. first of all they stuffed my email address and name up phoned them and advised the issue apparently it got fixed nope not the case still screwed 3 days later. and now they sting me for a late fee for there stuff up. Have lodged a formal complaint to the ombudsman and sent all personnel names as they are hopeless. Funny thing… Read more

i used to live were they started in Moruya as it states on there website apparently they are long gone from there but website still tells a different story. 100% hopeless and do not care about the customer and can 100% say there call center is not in Australia and there message service is hopeless. All i can say is you have ripped me off and i want my money back.