As Australia's largest NBN provider, Telstra has a lot going for it. Its NBN plans are advertised as having perfect typical evening speeds, which means your Telstra plan should be giving you fast Internet speeds all the time.
If you find your Telstra connection is struggling, a quick speed test can help you figure out if it's just you, or if there really is a problem.
How do I check my Telstra speed?
Just click "Go" on the speed test below and find out your results in 30 seconds.
What do my results mean?
You'll see a couple of different things being measured on the speed test, but the most important ones to look at are your download and upload speeds.
Download speed is the speed that you're receiving data from the Internet. A slow download speed means slow Internet.
Upload speed is the speed that you're sending data to the Internet. It's not usually as important as download speeds, unless you upload large files regularly or if you need to appear in video calls often.
Now that you know what to look at, let's take a deeper dive into what speed you should be getting versus the speed you're actually getting.
What should my Telstra Internet speed be?
This depends on the kind of Internet connection you have with Telstra since it offers NBN, ADSL and mobile broadband plans.
Which Telstra plan do you have?
Telstra NBN speed
To see whether your NBN plan is running as it should, find out which Telstra NBN plan you're on. If you're not sure, this is usually listed on your monthly Internet bill.
The maximum speeds for Telstra's NBN plans are as follows:
Telstra NBN 25. Maximum 25Mbps download, 5Mbps upload. Typical evening speed of 25Mbps.
Telstra NBN 50. Maximum 50Mbps download, 20Mbps upload. Typical evening speed of 50Mbps.
Telstra NBN 100. Maximum 100Mbps download, 20Mbps upload. Typical evening speed of 100Mbps.
You'll notice that Telstra's typical evening speeds are the same as its maximum download speeds, which means you should be getting the fastest speed available on whichever speed tier you're on.
Take the result of your download speed from the speed test and compare it to the speeds we've listed above for the different Telstra plans. If you're not getting close to the typical evening speeds above, you may want to try a couple of things at home before escalating the issue to Telstra itself. We've suggested a couple of things here.
"Typical evening speed" tells you the average download speed you can expect on your plan during busy periods of the day (7pm-11pm). When your speed tests are regularly showing a speed lower than the typical speed, it's a good idea to troubleshoot your connection.
Are you happy with your internet speed?
45% of Australians are somewhat satisfied with their broadband speeds, according to our consumer sentiment tracker (November 2023). Tasmanians had the highest number of people very satisfied with their internet speed (32%). Somewhat surprisingly, 29% of people in regional locations were extremely satisfied with their internet speeds compared to only 25% in metro areas.
Telstra ADSL speed
Telstra is one of the few providers that still sells ADSL plans to customers. Its speed profile is the same as all other ADSL connections: 24Mbps maximum download speed, with an average 8Mbps download speed in Australia.
Unfortunately, there's not much you can do if you're suffering slow ADSL speeds. The NBN has officially completed its rollout, so you may be due for an upgrade to an NBN plan soon which should guarantee faster speeds.
Otherwise, you could give mobile broadband a try, where speeds are often faster than ADSL, as we've listed in the next section.
Telstra mobile broadband speed
Your mobile broadband speed will depend on which Telstra mobile network you're using to connect. Here are the speed ranges you can expect on Telstra's different networks:
Telstra network
Speed range
Average speed
4G
2-50Mbps
N/A
4GX
5-150Mbps
47.3Mbps
5G
50-300Mbps
231.8Mbps
Grab your download speed result and see if it sits around the average speed for the network.
Keep in mind: Mobile Internet speeds are highly variable due to a number of factors including your physical location.
If you're out and about, you might achieve faster mobile speeds by moving around until you find an area that has a stronger connection.
If you're at home, it could mean that Telstra's network isn't very reliable in your area, and that switching providers might offer you a stronger, faster connection.
Telstra cable speed
Old-school cable Internet maxes out at around 100Mbps download and 5Mbps upload. Unfortunately, there's not too much information on what kind of speeds you can expect at peak hours. Some users have reported extreme slowdowns, dropping to 50% or less of off-peak speeds.
Old cable connections should have been upgraded to an NBN HFC connection following the completion of the NBN rollout. If you're still on the older cable connections, there's not much you can do about slow speeds, besides waiting for the NBN to arrive in your area or looking at an alternative like mobile broadband.
Is Telstra a fast Internet provider?
Telstra used to have quite lacklustre performance, but now regularly comes in the top 3 providers out of 12 on the ACCC Broadband Performance speed report. This should mean that a Telstra connection delivers a fast and reliable connection compared to other providers.
The speed of your Telstra connection will also depend on a couple of things such as:
Distance to your modem. The farther away it is and the more obstacles in the way (like walls and doors), the weaker your Wi-Fi signal. Try moving closer to your modem or bringing it out into the open to see if your connection improves.
Old/damaged equipment. Outdated or broken equipment can significantly impact connection speed. Check if your equipment is in need of an upgrade.
Low bandwidth. This is either from a low speed capped plan or having too many people online at the same time (inside your household). You might just need to jump up a speed tier and get a faster NBN plan.
Too many devices. Having too many devices connected at once can not only eat up your bandwidth, but also cause interference between Wi-Fi signals, worsening your connection. Check if your connection improves when there's only 1-2 devices connected.
Slow Telstra speeds? Here's what to do
As well as the above quick fixes, here are a couple of things you can try to speed up your Telstra connection.
Run speed tests in off-peak hours to make sure that you're getting slow speeds during hours of the day when you're supposed to get faster speeds. Running a test during the peak hours of 7-11pm usually means you'll have slower results because more people are online and clogging up the line.
Try some basic hardware fixes such as moving closer to the modem, or using an ethernet cable to gain a more direct connection. You can also run a virus scan to see if anything turns up, and close background applications that might be slowing down your bandwidth.
If nothing works, contact Telstra's technical support line. You can do this via the MyTelstra app. If the technical team can't sort out your problem, consider changing or upgrading your Internet plan.
Finder survey: How often do Australians of different ages conduct an internet speed test?
Response
75+ yrs
65-74 yrs
55-64 yrs
45-54 yrs
35-44 yrs
25-34 yrs
18-24 yrs
Never
68.18%
66.28%
63.98%
52.07%
52.43%
45.26%
47.06%
Once a month
22.73%
27.33%
22.98%
34.91%
34.05%
34.21%
42.35%
2-3 times a month
4.55%
4.65%
11.18%
8.28%
9.19%
14.74%
8.24%
More than 4 times a month
4.55%
1.74%
1.86%
4.73%
4.32%
5.79%
2.35%
Source: Finder survey by Pure Profile of 1006 Australians, December 2023
Compare NBN plans for a faster connection
Adjust the speed filter on the table below to find a plan that's faster than your current one.
We currently don't have a partnership for that product, but we have other similar offers to choose from (how we picked these
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Frequently asked questions
There are a couple of reasons you might get a radically different result from one speed test over another.
One of the main factors is where the speed test server is located. The closer it is to your location, often the better your result will be.
However, some speed test sites might give a low result due to clashing with your machine, your modem, or even an extension on your web browser. Your best bet is to run speed tests from a number of different sources and use the more frequent results as your benchmark.
Ping is a measure of how long it takes for a signal to bounce back to your computer from a server. On a speed test, it simply represents how distant the server is, and tells you nothing about your ping to other servers.
Jitter is a measure of the variation in your ping. Higher jitter means that your connection is jumping all over the place, unable to maintain a consistent connection to whatever server you're contacting.
Unless you're an avid gamer, download and upload speeds are probably more important to you than ping and jitter.
Sam Baran is a writer for Finder, covering topics across the tech, telco and utilities sectors. They enjoy decrypting technical jargon and helping people compare complex products easily. When they aren't writing, you'll find Sam's head buried in a book or working on their latest short story. Sam has a Bachelor of Advanced Science from the University of Sydney. See full bio
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