What is Typical Evening Speed — and why it tells you more than your plan speed.

Why this happens

• Maximum plan speeds are rarely achieved in practice — they depend on line conditions and network capacity being at their best simultaneously
• Evening congestion, driven by CVC provisioning decisions at the ISP level, reduces real-world speeds during peak hours for many customers
• ISPs are required by the ACCC to publish a Typical Evening Speed for every plan, but the figure is buried in the Critical Information Summary rather than advertised prominently
• Customers who compare plans by maximum speed alone may be choosing a plan with poor evening performance without realising it

How to fix it — step by step

1. 1. What Typical Evening Speed is

   Typical Evening Speed is the download speed a customer can reasonably expect to achieve between 7 pm and 11 pm on a weeknight. It is calculated and published by ISPs under ACCC guidelines and must appear in the Critical Information Summary (CIS) for every plan. It is not a guaranteed minimum — it is a statistical benchmark — but it is the most accurate public measure of how an ISP's network performs under load.

2. 2. Where to find it

   Every NBN plan has a CIS document. Look for the Typical Evening Speed listed in the speed section alongside the plan's maximum download speed. The gap between the two is the key number: a 100 Mbps plan with a 95 Mbps Typical Evening Speed is well-provisioned; a 100 Mbps plan with a 55 Mbps Typical Evening Speed has significant congestion. HIT Pacific publishes the CIS for every plan at hitpacific.com.au — check the plan page or the /cis/ directory.

3. 3. What counts as a good result

   A Typical Evening Speed above 90% of plan maximum indicates a well-managed network. Between 80% and 90% is acceptable. Below 80% suggests the ISP is underprovisioning and evening speeds are being squeezed. For a 100 Mbps plan: above 90 Mbps is excellent, 80–90 Mbps is fine, below 80 Mbps warrants a closer look at why.

4. 4. How CVC elimination changes this from July 2026

   The main driver of poor Typical Evening Speed is CVC congestion — ISPs buying less wholesale bandwidth than customers need during peak hours to keep costs down. When NBN Co eliminates CVC charges on 1 July 2026, that financial incentive disappears. Typical Evening Speed across the industry should improve significantly as a result. The figures published before July 2026 will not reflect post-elimination performance — check updated CIS documents after that date.

5. 5. How to use it when comparing plans

   When comparing plans, look up the CIS for each option and check: (1) Typical Evening Speed as a percentage of plan maximum, (2) whether the figure applies to your specific technology type — FTTP and HFC often differ from FTTN, (3) how recently the figure was updated. A plan with a high Typical Evening Speed and a lower plan maximum often delivers a better everyday experience than a higher-tier plan with poor evening performance.