Internet Australia has come out in strong support of the federal government’s decision to fund a broadband performance monitoring programme to be run by the ACCC, and the benefits to consumers able to access independent information on their Internet speeds.
IA’s newly appointed executive chair, Anne Hurley, said the decision was a welcome move to assist Internet users who are currently experiencing uncertainty in relation to the speeds they are likely to see from the NBN.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the programme “will use hardware-based devices to perform remote testing of around 4000 households to determine typical speeds on fixed-line services at various times throughout the day”.
“It’s pretty clear that for a lot of people the NBN has been a big disappointment,” Hurley said.
{loadposition peter}“NBN Co’s reliance on outdated technology has meant that for many customers speeds delivered via the NBN have not been much better than they were previously getting. In some cases, the move to the NBN has seen their speeds actually reduced.”
Internet Australia has been campaigning for the government to abandon the use of fibre to the node (FttN) technology, which it argues is barely sufficient for today’s needs and not capable of keeping Australia in line with overseas experience.
While welcoming the government’s decision to monitor broadband speeds, Hurley also drew attention to reports that confirm that Australia is being left behind in the broadband race.
“New Zealand has far better broadband than we do because they have a more modern approach to technology,” she said.
“For example, Dunedin had an average connection speed of 196.3Mbps last month. The rest of the country isn’t quite at that level, but they are well ahead of us.”