A recent post in the r/nbn subreddit has set the Australian tech community abuzz, with a user claiming to be part of a secret 50Gbps NBN Enterprise Ethernet (EE) trial. As NBN Co rolls out its upgrades across the country, everyone is looking for the next big speed boost, but does this “50 Gig” claim actually hold water?
At techAU, we love a good speed test, but we also love technical accuracy. Here is a breakdown of why this 50Gbps claim is almost certainly a well-crafted fabrication.
The reddit user under the handle Future_Muffin_8248 posted a screenshot showing a staggering 46,059 Mbps download speed, allegedly running on an unreleased Nokia ONT and a UniFi setup.
First, let’s take a second to consider the account, it’s been around for more than a year, but this post, 1 hour ago (at the time of writing) is the first and only post. They have now replied 6 times to people questioning the legitimacy of the claim.
In response to one of the questions, he provided a short video uploaded to Imgur of Speetest running on Windows 11, which shows Aussie Broadband being used as the ISP.
The Reality Check: Technical Red Flags
1. The Asymmetry Problem
The most glaring issue is the speed disparity. The screenshot shows:
- Download: ~46,000 Mbps
- Upload: ~4,800 Mbps
Why it’s fake: NBN Enterprise Ethernet is fundamentally a symmetrical product. Official NBN pricing and technical roadmaps for late 2025 confirm that high-tier enterprise services, including the flagship 10Gbps tier, are designed for equal upload and download performance.
A genuine fiber trial of this magnitude would not feature a 10:1 speed ratio; this is a common side effect of using “Inspect Element” to multiply a standard residential 1000/100 Mbps result.
2. The Server Bottleneck
The test was reportedly run against an Aussie Broadband (Sydney) server. While Aussie Broadband is a leader in high-speed fiber, their own commercial enterprise products currently top out at 10Gbps.
- Standard public Speedtest.net servers typically utilize 10Gbps or 40Gbps backbones.
- It is physically impossible for a 10Gbps-linked server to deliver 46Gbps to a single client.
3. Hardware Limitations
The user claims to be using UniFi gear. While Ubiquiti has been aggressive with its 2025 roadmap, their current flagship gateways and switches are optimized for 10Gbps to 25Gbps throughput. There is currently no UniFi hardware capable of routing 50Gbps of internet traffic, which would require specialized enterprise-grade NICs (like Mellanox ConnectX-6) and massive PCIe Gen 4/5 bandwidth.
Where the NBN Actually Stands (December 2025)
To put this hoax in perspective, here is what is actually happening on the NBN network right now:
- Residential Multi-Gig: NBN Co successfully launched its 2Gbps “Hyperfast” tier in September 2025.
- Enterprise Limits: The current maximum commercial wholesale tier for Enterprise Ethernet is 10Gbps (10,000/10,000 Mbps).
- Next-Gen Hardware: NBN is currently deploying new NTDs (Network Termination Devices) that support up to 8Gbps.
The Verdict: Fake
While NBN Co has conducted lab trials of 50G-PON and 100G-PON technology, these are infrastructure-level tests not yet available to individual users on Reddit.
The combination of asymmetric speeds, server limitations, and unsupported hardware makes this 50Gbps claim a textbook example of a “Speedtest Spoof”.
Stay skeptical out there, and remember: if the upload doesn’t match the download on an “Enterprise” claim, it’s probably just someone playing with their browser’s developer tools.