Does NBN speed tier affect your ping in Valorant or CoD?

You've just upgraded your NBN plan, expecting smoother ranked games and instant hit registration. Instead, you're still getting clapped by someone with a ping ten milliseconds lower than yours, on what should be a "worse" connection than your shiny new plan. 

It's super frustrating, and it doesn't help that internet providers talk about speed like it's the only thing that matters. 

Here's the thing though: speed and ping are two completely different measurements. Speed's how much data you can shift. Ping's how fast one tiny packet gets to a Valorant or CoD server and back. It’s an easy mix-up, and it's the reason so many gamers end up paying for a bigger plan that was never going to touch their lag. 

The assumption: "If I upgrade my plan, my ping will drop" 

It's an easy trap to fall into… your ping in Valorant creeps up to 80ms, shots aren't registering when they should, and your first instinct is to blame the plan. So you jump from NBN 100 to NBN 1000, expecting the ping to drop and… BAM: you're still getting the same ping spikes mid-round. WHAT!? 

Sigh. Turns out speed and ping aren't the same thing at all, and once you're past a basic threshold, one barely touches the other. 

What determines ping in competitive shooters? 

Ping (how latency is measured) is a test that shows how long it takes a data packet to make it from your PC to the game server and back. We're talking milliseconds. It's the difference between your shots feeling instant or feeling late. Three things drive it: 

1. Distance to the server 

A Sydney player connecting to a Valorant server in Sydney will almost always beat someone routing through Singapore or Tokyo, purely on physics, if everything else is equal.  

2. Routing quality 

This is the path your data takes to get there. A direct, well-managed route with fewer hops beats a longer, congested one, even if both connections are technically "fast." 

3. Network congestion 

Peak hour traffic jams on a provider's network add delay no matter what plan you're paying for, since everyone's data is fighting for the same lanes (bit rude of everyone else to be using the internet at the same time as you!!).  

Notice that "how many Mbps you're paying for" isn't on that list?  

Speed's handy for shifting a lot of data at once (eg. downloading updates or streaming), but it does very little for how fast one small packet gets a reply. 

Can a bigger NBN plan lower your ping? 

Test after test, the answer's the same… latency barely budges across NBN speed tiers on the same network. 

This tracks with what the ACCC's Measuring Broadband Australia program has found across its testing: latency is driven far more by the provider's network architecture and routing than by the plan tier a customer has selected. 

Why routing and network quality matter more than speed 

1. A bigger plan ≠ better routing 

A bigger plan gives you more bandwidth, not better routing, and it's routing that actually decides your ping. 

2. Identical speed tiers can still mean different ping 

Two people in the same suburb, on the exact same speed tier, can have noticeably different ping in the exact same game. One provider might send Australian gaming traffic straight to a nearby server with barely any stops along the way. Another might send it on a longer detour through an interstate or overseas exchange, even though both providers are technically selling the same speed. 

3. Good engineering beats a bigger number 

Good network engineering matters more than the number on your plan. Superloop delivers one of the lowest latencies of any measured provider during peak hours, at just 8.5ms between 7pm and 11pm (when most people are online and networks are under the most strain). 

What actually helps your in-game ping 

• Choose a provider with strong routing to Australian and regional game servers, not just a fast headline speed. 

• Use a wired Ethernet connection instead of Wi-Fi where possible. Wi-Fi interference adds its own jitter and inconsistency on top of network latency. 

• Check for background devices hammering your connection, like a housemate's 4K stream or a cloud backup running mid-match. Congestion inside your own home affects consistency, even if it doesn't spike your baseline ping much. 

• Look at your connection type. Fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections tend to be more stable than fibre to the node (FTTN), which can introduce more variability. 

• Run a proper speed and latency test rather than guessing. Most in-game ping counters don't tell you the full picture of where a delay is coming from. 

Check your ping and let’s secure you a win 

Before you throw more money at a bigger plan, it's worth testing your connection. If your current provider's routing is the real villain here, Superloop's NBN plans are built different… we’re talking 8.5ms peak-hour latency, zero excuses.