Optus tops latest ACCC NBN speed report

Alex Choros - Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor

Last updated 13 February 2020

The ACCC has put out its eighth Measuring Broadband Australia report, which sees Optus maintain top spot for real world NBN speeds for the second consecutive quarter. Optus customers were found to receive 89.9% of their plan's maximum speeds during peak hours (between 7pm and 11pm) putting the telco ahead of TPG, Aussie Broadband, Telstra, and more.

The report currently covers nine major providers - Aussie Broadband, Dodo, Exetel, iiNet, iPrimus, MyRepublic, Optus, Telstra, and TPG. Here's how they stacked up:

Average percent of max. download speed

	Overall	Overall excluding under performing connections	Peak hours
Aussie Broadband	86.6%	89.9%	85.8%
Dodo	81.7%	87.9%	80.0%
Exetel	87.8%	89.4%	86.6%
iiNet	85.5%	91.7%	84.3%
iPrimus	81.7%	87.9%	80.0%
MyRepublic	83.6%	89.2%	82.3%
Optus	90.8%	92.2%	89.9%
Telstra	85.8%	91.5%	84.4%
TPG	88.3%	90.9%	86.6%

Most ISPs fared better this time around, with everyone but MyRepbulic clocking faster speeds during peak hours when compared to last quarter's report. Dodo and iPrimus made the biggest gains, with a 3.6% download speed increase during busy hours.

When you exclude under-performing connections, Optus still comes out on top, but by a smaller margin.

In addition, the ACCC once again found that some consumers continue to experience under-performing NBN services that never achieve close to their advertised plan speeds. The report shows that about a quarter of Fibre to the Node (FTTN) customers on either an NBN 50 or NBN 100 plan still do not receive anywhere near the plan speeds they are paying for.

The Measuring Broadband report also tracks outages that last over 30 seconds. Here's how providers stacked up:

Aussie Broadband: Approximately 0.44 daily outages
Dodo: Approximately 0.28 daily outages
Exetel: Approximately 0.43 daily outages
iiNet: Approximately 0.35 daily outages
iPrimus: Approximately 0.28 daily outages
MyRepublic: Approximately 0.25 daily outages
Optus: Approximately 0.47 daily outages
Telstra: Approximately 0.19 daily outages
TPG: Approximately 0.13 daily outages

While the overall report looks like a win for Optus, it's always worth taking these results with a grain of salt. The testing was conducted throughout November 2019 across just 1,212 NBN connections. All but 64 of these households have a connection with one of the nine providers featured in the report. However, the ACCC says that over 2,300 households now have the equipment necessary for testing NBN speeds.

If you're after a new NBN plan, check out our guide to plans from the providers mentioned in this report.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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