ACCC broadband report: Aussie Broadband, TPG fare best with peak hour downloads

Second broadband monitoring report released

Aussie Broadband and TPG delivered the best download speeds during busy periods in the latest broadband performance report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

TPG’s NBN customers achieved, on average, 85.6 per cent of their plan’s theoretical maximum speed during “busy hours” — 7-11pm — while Aussie Broadband customers enjoyed 89.1 per cent of their maximum plan speed.

Of the other retail service providers (RSP) included in the report, prepared by SamKnows on behalf of the ACCC, TPG subsidiary iiNet was next best (83.4 per cent of maximum speed), followed by Optus (83.3 per cent), Telstra (79.9 per cent) and MyRepublic (74.4 per cent).

When looking at download speeds overall (in terms of a percentage of maximum plan speed), the RSPs were ranked in the same order: Aussie Broadband (89.1 per cent), TPG (86 per cent), iiNet (85 per cent), Optus (83.9 per cent), Telstra (81 per cent), and MyRepublic (79.5 per cent).

More than 145,000 tests download speed tests were conducted by SamKnows during March — more than double the number conducted in March for the previous edition of the report.

SamKnows said that in 70 per cent of tests, download speeds were at least 90 per cent of the maximum plan speed. However, the company revealed that 7.4 per cent of tests failed to achieve even 50 per cent of plan speed.

The number of underperforming services covered by the tests had a “material impact” on the reported download and upload speed metrics, SamKnows said.

The results highlighted the negative impact of a range of physical limitations, SamKnows said, such as interference on NBN’s access network or the limitations of in-home network equipment.

“Whilst we are pleased to see that most customers are able to get fast, reliable broadband services even during busy hours, we must focus our attention on those who do not have this experience,” ACCC chairperson Rod Sims said.

“Overall, the results are encouraging, particularly when considering the significant recent migration of NBN customers to higher speed plans, where hard limits on individual connections to the network are more likely to impede services reaching their maximum speeds,” Sims said.

The full report is available from the ACCC’s website.

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Tags broadbandNetworkingTelecommunicationsNational Broadband Network (NBN)Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

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