The ACCC’s Latest NBN Speed Report Reveals How Far Behind Fixed Wireless Services Are

The ACCC’s Latest NBN Speed Report Reveals How Far Behind Fixed Wireless Services Are
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The ACCC has released its most recent quarterly report on real world NBN speeds. Sitting at the top of the list for the sixth quarter in a row is Optus with Telstra and TPG following closely behind.

In the latest Measuring Broadband Australia report from the ACCC it was found that Optus customers are receiving 103 per cent of the maximum speed delivered by its plans during peak periods — which is traditionally between the hours of 7pm and 11pm.

Whole Optus came in first in December as well, it is still quite the jump from 98.5 per cent.

When it came to overall speed delivery, TPG came out on top ay 99.5 per cent, with Optus nipping at its heels at 99.4 per cent. This figure has become increasingly important over the last 12 months with so many people are at home using the internet during periods that were previously considered to be off peak.

Other providers found in the report include Aussie Broadband, Dodo, Exetel, iiNet, iPrimus, MyRepublic, Telstra, Vodafone and TPG.

This quarter Superloop was also added to the report for the first time. The newbie came in at 93.4% maximum speed delivery during peak hours and 94.4% overall.

Here’s a full list of the results:

Overall Overall excluding under
performing connections
Peak hours
Aussie Broadband 97.0% 100.4% 96.1%
Dodo 86.1% 89.6% 85.0%
Exetel 90.4% 91.4% 89.9%
iiNet 97.1% 101.1% 96.5%
iPrimus 86.1% 89.6% 85.0%
MyRepublic 97.0% 101.5% 95.7%
Optus 99.4% 103.0% 98.7%
Superloop 96.4% 98.1% 95.3%
Telstra 98.2% 102.9% 97.1%
TPG 99.5% 102.3% 98.9%
Vodafone 94.5% 98.1% 93.7%

Fixed wireless makes its first appearance

There was also a new contender included in this quarter’s report. For the first time since its publication began, the ACCC has included the performance of fixed wireless connections.

This is great news for anyone who can’t get wired connections, such as Aussies in more rural areas. The ACCC bothering to measure this hopefully indicates that this “alternate” technology is being taken more seriously.

“Fixed wireless performance is measured in much the same way as the fixed-line program, with SamKnows supplying its Whiteboxes to NBN fixed wireless internet users in Australia to measure the quality of experience of their internet,” the latest Measure Broadband report reads.

The results were incredibly telling in regards to the speed differences between wired and wireless connections. While it’s not surprising theoretically, seeing the actual figures printed really solidifies what we already knew.

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According to the report, fixed wireless connections had an average download performance of only 68.4 per cent during peak hours, and 78.5 per cent in off peak.

Comparatively, wired NBN serves had an average download performance of 95.7 per cent during peak hours and 96.6 per cent in off peak.

Not only are the average speeds wildly different in general, but there on-peak drop in speeds is far more significant on fixed wireless connections.

Unfortunately the ACCC has not provided a service provider break down for these services, but hopefully we will see this in future reports.

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