Typical evening speeds explained

What is a typical evening speed?

As per Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) rules, internet service providers are expected to display typical evening speeds on their NBN plans.

These incidcate how fast a user can expect their internet connection to be during the busiest hours of the day, which is 7pm–11pm.

It's when most people are online around the same time carrying out activities such as streaming, gaming or browsing. This is also when you might experience network congestion, or slow internet, similar to a traffic jam on the road.

Typical evening speed is different to an NBN speed tier, which is essentially the maximum speed you can expect on a particular plan.

What are good typical evening speeds?

The NBN provides guidelines on what a reasonable evening speed should be.

This is important if you find yourself saving a few dollars each month with a provider that doesn't necessarily offer that fastest typical evening speed.

What typical evening speed should you look for?

When you're shopping for a speed tier, you have to think about your overall usage. Most Aussie households will be fine with either a 50M or 100Mbps tier - that's more than enough for a few people to stream video, work remotely or do homework, and even play some online games at the same time. For bigger households, 100Mbps is safer.

Typical evening speeds can definitely knock down your available bandwidth in peak periods, so it's worth being mindful of the impact if can have. That being said, unless you're on a really bad fibre to the node connection, typical evening speeds on 50 or 100Mbps plans tend to be fairly close to the maximum, so you'll probably be okay. Just be ready to up your speed tier if you start to see less than ideal results.

What speed tier do you choose?

"I'm a bit of an internet speed freak, but I know that what I pay for is rarely what my typical speed will be. When I've been on 50Mbps speed tiers, I've been more likely to get between 35Mbps and 45Mbps. Of course it totally depends where I've been living. These days I'm on a FTTP connection and a 500Mbps speed tier. But even then, my typical evening speed is closer to 300Mbps. A rule of thumb for me has been to go for a speed tier that's just a bit higher than the speed I'm after."

Tim Bennett

Insurance expert

Which NBN providers have the fastest typical evening speeds?

There are over 20+ NBN providers on Finder that offer the maximum available typical evening speeds across NBN 25 and NBN 50. That means you can expect 25Mbps and 50Mbps respectively during the busiest hours of the day.

The list becomes slightly shorter across NBN 12, NBN 100 and NBN 250 plans but some providers do come quite close to offering the fastest available typical evening speeds.

You’ll find the likes of Southern Phone, Telstra, SpinTel, Exetel and Optus advertising solid speeds across some of the more popular speed tiers such as NBN 50 and NBN 100.

Will you always get advertised typical evening speeds?

There’s a chance your internet connection won’t consistently achieve a provider’s advertised typical evening speed – at least not 100% of the time.

Each quarter, the ACCC releases its Measuring Broadband Australia report which measures the reliability of the top 11 broadband providers in the country.

As part of the report, it checks how providers fare during the peak hours of the day.

As an example, the report from September 2023 saw Launtel hit 105.5% of maximum speeds, Exetel knocked out 101.9% and Telstra was at 100.4%.

Finder survey: How many Australians understand typical evening speed?

Frequently asked questions

• Is typical evening speed the same as an average speed?

  Yes, in a sense. The typical evening speed is the average speed you can expect to see during the busiest period of the day. In general, an average speed can be calculated over a shorter or longer period of time, but a typical evening speed reduces this window to between 7pm and 11pm each day.

  If you want to know more about average speeds you can see a breakdown by state.

• What is considered a good typical evening speed?

  A good typical evening speed is one that is as close as possible to the maximum speed on a particular speed tier.

  You can check how your connection holds up by running an internet speed test.

• What is the difference between download and upload speeds?

  Download speeds measure how long it takes for your computer to receive information from the web, while upload speeds are a measure of how long it takes to send that information.

  Download speeds are quoted more frequently and are often higher than upload speeds.

• What if my plan isn't reaching its advertised typical evening speeds?

  Your plan may not reach its advertised typical evening speed for a range of reasons including hardware issues.

  If your plan isn't reaching its advertised typical evening speed, you can contact your provider for an explanation. It may be able to help resolve the issue.

  In a case where you find your provider unwilling to help, you can contact the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsmam (TIO). The TIO can escalate the situation and provide dispute resolution to help you get things sorted with your telco.

  You may also want to compare NBN plans and switch to a new provider that may offer a more reliable connection.

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Tim Bennett as part of our fact-checking process.

Written by

Mariam Gabaji

Editor I Tech and utilities expert

Mariam Gabaji is an editor and tech and utilities expert at Finder with 12+ years of experience as a journalist. She's committed to helping households cut through the industry jargon and save money on their bills. Her expertise is often featured in media including the ABC, Yahoo Finance, 9News, 7News, A Current Affair, The Guardian, SBS and Money Magazine. See full bio

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