
The ACCC has released its 30th Measuring Broadband Australia report, ranking Telstra the fastest NBN provider. Telstra also topped the report last time, marking the first time the brand has had successive first-place wins.
The new report found Telstra customers receive 104.6% of their NBN plan's maximum speeds during the busiest hours of the day (between 7pm and 11pm on Monday to Friday).
Exetel maintained its second-place finish, with its customers found to get 104.4% of plan speeds during busy hours. TPG followed in third, with 103% of plan speeds in busy hours.
The report monitors 11 telcos, including Aussie Broadband, Dodo, Exetel, iiNet, iPrimus, Leaptel, Optus, Telstra, TPG, Superloop, and Vodafone. Launtel was previously featured in the report, but is no longer.
Here's the full breakdown of how they all performed:
| Provider | Busy hours | Overall | Overall excluding underperforming connections |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aussie Broadband | 100.8 | 101.5 | 103.4 |
| Dodo | 102.4 | 103 | 104.4 |
| Exetel | 104.4 | 105.1 | 106.3 |
| iiNet | 98.5 | 99.2 | 101.4 |
| iPrimus | 102.4 | 103 | 104.4 |
| Leaptel | 100.8 | 101.6 | 102.8 |
| Optus | 102.8 | 103.6 | 104.9 |
| Superloop | 102.6 | 103.2 | 105.3 |
| Telstra | 104.6 | 105.2 | 105.5 |
| TPG | 103 | 103.7 | 104.1 |
| Vodafone | 99.6 | 100.3 | 102.6 |
Compare NBN 50, NBN 100, NBN 250, and NBN 1000 plans from the providers in this report:
More broadly, the latest report looked at performance across fixed-line NBN technology types. Unsurprisingly, FTTN connections were found to be the most likely to experience underperforming download speeds.
The report found that FTTN connections with an NBN 100 plan achieved an average download speed of 88.2Mbps during busy hours, compared to 104.4Mbps on FTTP and HFC connections on the same speed tier.
Similarly, FTTN connections with an NBN 50 plan achieved an average download speed of 47.6Mbps during busy hours, compared to 52.1Mbps on FTTP connections and 52.3Mbps on HFC connections.
ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey urged Australians still on FTTN connections to take advantage of NBN Co's free FTTP upgrade program.
"We encourage consumers experiencing slow internet speeds or frequent outages on FTTN and FTTC connections to contact their broadband provider to see if they are eligible for a NBN connection upgrade, or what other options may be available," said Brakey.
Over five million FTTN and FTTC premises will be able to upgrade to FTTP for free by the end of the year.
The Measuring Broadband Report also includes Fixed Wireless NBN plans and Starlink plans. The average busy hour download speed for Fixed Wireless Plus plans rose slightly from last quarter. They increased from 91.9Mbps to 92.2Mbps. Meanwhile, Starlink customers achieved an average of 189.3Mbps during busy hours, which is up from 170.2Mbps last quarter.
As always, it's worth remembering the scale of the ACCC's testing. The results come from a month-long testing period in May across 1,125 NBN connections. All but 88 of these households have a connection with one of the 11 providers featured in the report. The ACCC reports a 95% confidence level in its results.
Alex Choros
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