NBN Co says network congestion now just 12 minutes a week

Alex Choros - Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor

Last updated 14 March 2018

NBN Co says network congestion now just 12 minutes a week

The average fixed-line NBN subscribe is now experiencing just 12 minutes of NBN bandwidth congestion in a week, according to new data published by NBN Co. This is down from 4 hours and 50 minutes, one year ago.

NBN Co defines network congestion as when 95% or more of the available bandwidth is used.

"This metric is measured by dividing the used bandwidth by the available bandwidth. Where this ratio exceeds 95 per cent, we consider it to be congested," said an NBN Co spokesperson. "To keep track, we measure these levels every 15 minutes."

The figure is an average across all subscribers and all providers (who each purchase their own amount of bandwidth), so your individual results may vary. The figure also doesn't account for other kinds of congestion or speed degradation (such as distance from the node). Despite this, the data seems promising, and suggests that many Australians are how having a more consistent NBN experience.

NBN Co is attributing the decrease in congestion to its wholesale pricing shakeup at the end of last year, where it provided healthy discounts to ISPs on both AVC (a network access fee) and CVC (a network capacity fee).

CVC has historically been a controversial charge that led to an ongoing blame game between NBN Co and ISPs. NBN Co has regularly accused ISPs of not purchasing enough CVC (which in turn leads to congestion), while ISPs have suggested the cost of doing so is too prohibitive.

Last month, the ACCC noted that NBN Co's discounts had spurred ISPs to buy 37% more CVC than in the previous quarter. This translates to 1.5Mbps of capacity per user, up from 1.11Mbps.

The congestion data comes from the network builder's new monthly progress report, which it launched this week. The report also indicates that 25% of NBN subscribers are on NBN 50 plans or better, compared to 16% three months ago.

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Alex Choros

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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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