The latest report on the State of the Internet by Akamai has prompted a strong statement from NBN Co warning that the report shows again the National Broadband Network is not only critical to bridging the digital divide in Australia, but also confirms the need to complete the rollout of the network as soon as possible.
Akamai's report, released on Thursday, shows Australia now sits at 50th in the global rankings for average Internet connection speeds, with an average of 9.6Mbps for the 3rd quarter this year, a decline of 13% on the previous quarter – compared to global average connection speeds increasing by 2.3% to 6.3 Mbps, a 21% increase year over year.
On peak Internet speeds for the quarter Australia recorded an average peak speed of just 46.9 Mbps - way behind APAC leaders Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea with average peak speeds above 100 Mbps.
Globally, the Akamai report revealed that South Korea had the highest average connection speed at 26.3 Mbps in the third quarter despite a 2.5% decline compared with the second quarter. And, on peak speeds, Singapore maintained its position as the country with the highest average peak connection speed at 162.0 Mbps, after a 3.0% quarterly increase.
{loadposition peter}NBN Co makes a distinction between the “retail speeds” covered by the Akamai report versus the “wholesale speeds” delivered by the NBN.
In a firmly worded, defensive statement NBNCo says: “The Akamai Report is not a measure of NBN’s wholesale speeds. It is a measure of retail broadband speeds across a range of different providers, including NBN, but predominantly ADSL lines.
“Any comment that the report reflects NBN services is incorrect.”
NBNCo goes on to point out that the Akamai Report tested more than 10 million Australian internet lines – mostly ADSL services – and that the NBN network currently has just over 1.6 million premises connected.
“It’s important to note that of the NBN services that may be included, the purchased speed tier will dictate the end users service that is tested – not what the NBN cable is potentially able to deliver. For example, a home can get a 100Mbps speed but they have bought from their retailer a 25/5 speed plan.”
And, according to NBNCo, of the 1.6 million homes or businesses already connected to the NBN, many could be taking the advantage of higher speed packages from their telco retailers.
“At the end of 18 month migration window, 74% of homes and businesses who can order a service, have moved to the NBN network – and this is line with NBN’s corporate plan.
“NBN encourages everyone to ask their retailers about the most appropriate speed plan for them.”
In further comment on the Akamai report, long-time critic and observer of the NBN, Internet Australia’s Laurie Patton, is quick to point out that Australia's quarter on quarter change in Internet speeds “is going backwards the fastest in our region at -8.2%”.
“We rank 10th in our region and 57th globally. In addition, the report shows that there are only 14% of Australians with an average speed above 15Mbps,” Patton notes.