Last week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released its fifth report on real-world NBN speeds. The results are actually pretty good, and seem to be improving every time. Download speeds generally increased when compared to the previous quarter, including during peak usage hours of 7pm – 11pm.
This is a sign of a few major changes; improvements to FTTN rollouts, use of shorter cable runs bringing up FTTN speeds, and the increased rollout of newer connections built on better technology.
The ACCC’s research now has enough sample data to provide concrete peak hour speed information about nine major ISPs: Aussie Broadband, Dodo, Exetel, iiNet, iPrimus, MyRepublic, Optus, Telstra, and TPG.
TPG came out on top this time around: its customers were found to receive 88% of their plan’s maximum speeds during busy periods, putting the telco ahead of Aussie Broadband, Optus, Telstra and more. Here are the full results:
| Peak hours | Overall | Overall excluding under performing connections |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| TPG | 88.3% | 89.0% | 91% |
| Aussie Broadband | 85.9% | 86.9% | 90.6% |
| Exetel | 85.2% | 85.6% | 86.7% |
| iPrimus | 85.2% | 83.5% | 86.7% |
| Optus | 85.0% | 85.8% | 91.6% |
| iiNet | 84.5% | 85.3% | 90.5% |
| Telstra | 83.5% | 83.9% | 90.9% |
| MyRepublic | 81.9% | 82.6% | 90.7% |
| Dodo | 81.8% | 83.5% | 86.7% |
It’s worth noting that the ACCC speed testing program sample size isn’t huge: it currently covers 940 households. As such, there’s almost certainly a margin of error when it comes to this data, but at the same time, it’s not a bad indication of how Australia’s ISPs perform.
Here’s a look at NBN 100 plans from the providers in the ACCC report:
And here’s a look at NBN 50 plans:
Note that Telstra doesn’t directly sell an NBN 100 plan. To get NBN 100 speeds on Telstra you’ll need to sign up for an NBN 50 plan, and if your physical connection is fast enough, you can then upgrade to NBN 100 for an extra $30 per month.
Dodo and iPrimus don’t directly advertise NBN 100 plans, but they are available to customers requesting them provided that their NBN service is capable of delivering the service.
And if you want to compare, here’s a couple of extra NBN 100 plans from smaller providers not currently included in the ACCC’s report:
Does Whistleout or Android.com payment of any kind from Aussie Broadband and if so where is the declaration?
I have the impression from using Whistleout that it is like the health comparison sites that did not make any declaration until the ACCC intervened.
Is this fair comment?
Not quite sure what you’re talking about with regards to Whistleout’s disclosure. As for ours, yes we clearly disclose that we receive payment from WhistleOut for posting their stories every so often – it’s on our disclosure and interests page which is linked on every page on Ausdroid – you can find it in the footer and in the site menu. Alternatively, you can view it here: https://ausdroid.net/about-ausdroid/disclosure-and-interests/
I was under the impression that we were promised that we wouldn’t be paying any more for NBN, I’m currently paying $54.80 for phone rental and unlimited ADSL. I do not require a landline with NBN so I’m at a loss to understand why every deal I look at will definitely cost me from $15.00 per month more??? I’m a pensioner and $15.00 is not chicken feed so why, without a landline rental am I expected to pay more?
Let me find some alternatives for you Helen. It’s a great question.