Internet Outages Melbourne: Key Facts to Know About Speed and Status Checks

An average of 8.6 million homes and companies choose to connect to the internet with NBN services each year, and although the NBN access network runs 99.96% of the time on average, speeds can fluctuate. What you’ll want to know if you’ve noticed internet outages in Melbourne is how you can monitor your internet connection for network outages and assess the network status. It’s not too difficult when you know how.

We examined the best ways to complete an internet speed test and network status check to help you notice when there are any unplanned outages, network degradation or planned maintenance. Need top advice to assess your connection? These are the top methods and factors you should know.

High-Speed Services: How Fast is the Internet in Melbourne?

Before you check your internet speed or for internet outages Melbourne, you’re going to need to know the average download speed and upload speed you should expect from your provider. Now, for high-speed connections such as enterprise ethernet services, most NBN networks across Australia have an average speed of 788.6Mbps for hours outside of the busy period. 

Note that this speed can be reduced. In fact, during peak times, most NBN networks have an average speed of 724.8Mbps.

If you look at the upload speeds, these also vary between peak times and normal hours. You’ll likely receive an average upload speed of 46Mbps during normal hours and 45.8Mbps during peak time. This difference in speed is the result of many people using the network simultaneously

NBN 50 and NBN 100 Download Speeds in Melbourne

If you’ve got an NBN 50 connection and are interested in the average speed in Melbourne, you can expect fixed-line services to give download speeds of 48.5Mbps.

Of course, most service provider companies advertise a 50Mbps download speed for their NBN 50 connections. Still, they will also tell you that network congestion, technology types and NBN outages can affect the service. In fact, case studies even explain that the average download speed can vary between fibre to the premises and fixed wireless connections, with fibre to the premises being faster.

The NBN 100 plans’ average download speed is 98.4Mbps, which works well if you need to stream entertainment services or enjoy playing online games.

NBN Speed	Description
NBN 25	The Standard Evening Speed is ideal for smaller households with basic internet requirements, such as internet browsing, moderate online streaming in SD, and online gaming. Average speeds (7-11pm) for NBN 25 are 25 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload.
NBN 50	The Standard Plus Evening Speed is for busier households as it can accommodate more browsing, video streaming in HD on 2 devices at once, and responsive gaming. Typical speeds (7-11pm) are 50 Mbps download and 17 Mbps upload.
NBN 100	Prior to the arrival of the latest speed add-ons (Superfast and Ultrafast), NBN 100 was the fastest speed tier in Australia. Typical speeds (7-11pm) are 100 Mbps download and also 17 Mbps upload. It’s fit for big households and can even accommodate 4K streaming.
NBN 250	Only available to FTTP and most HFC customers, the Superfast NBN has typical download speeds of 250 Mbps, which means it’s great for larger households who need to use the internet to browse, video-call, play online games, stream in HD and Ultra HD, download, and upload files, all at the same time.
NBN 1000	Aptly called the Ultrafast, it’s currently the fastest speed tier offered in Australia. While this speed plan might be too much for those who have no need for something this lightning fast, the advent of streaming, gaming, and the arrival of 8K technology, however, make the NBN 1000 add-on plan an appealing option for many. Telstra is one of the providers in Australia that offers the Ultrafast plan, alongside Aussie Broadband and MyRepublic.

Speed Check: How To Check Internet Speed in Australia

It’s not too complex to check your internet speed in Australia – you can start by looking at your most recent bill or checking the self-service portal your service provider offers. The figures you see will let you know the plan you’ve signed up for. Once you’ve checked this, it’s time to run an internet speed test for your NBN connection. It works like this.

Open speedtest.net by Ookla on your browser, close your running activities, such as Amazon Prime entertainment streaming services and connect your device to the modem with an ethernet cable. You’ll then select the “Go” button to initiate the test and wait for the results.

When the results are in, you’ve got to consider how closely they match the speeds your provider indicates and the expected average download speed in Melbourne. Your download speed, if you’ve got an NBN 50 plan, should be approximately 48Mbps, and your upload speed should be similar to (or slightly slower than) the upload speed your provider offers you.

What Causes Internet Outages Melbourne? How to Check It

A power outage is just one thing that can cause internet outages in Melbourne. You’ll notice outages when upgrades are scheduled, but also when there are cut fibre optic cables or internet service provider equipment failures. 

Natural disasters, infrastructure issues, cyber attacks such as DDoS issues and congestion can all cause network users to experience an outage too. Statistics show that the average number of outages daily for most fixed-line NBN services is 0.27 times.

But if you’re experiencing issues affecting your NBN broadband or satellite service, head to your provider’s website and navigate to their network status section. Most providers will have a section where you can enter your full address and postcode to determine if there’s an outage in your location. Alternatively, check out our guide on how to speed up your internet connection.

Experiencing Issues when Trying to Stay Connected? Why Not Look for Another Internet Provider?

Staying connected to the internet and receiving a quality connection can make a real difference to your streaming quality, online gaming experience, social media use and file download speed, so outages can be bad news in cases like this. If you’re frequently affected by issues when trying to stay connected and have needed to escalate these issues with your internet provider, why not look for an alternative?

Some of the top alternatives, such as Dodo, have had fewer outages in recent years (Dodo’s statistics related to daily outages that last more than 30 seconds show that it has an average of 0.31 of these incidents, while iiNet has 0.11).

Internet Outages Melbourne FAQs

Have you been looking for more answers to the questions about internet outages Melbourne residents experience? How about speed test queries? Get the details you need just here.