Australia slips to 60th spot in world broadband speeds, falling behind developing nations

Australia has plummeted down worldwide broadband rankings again, falling to 60th place for download speeds behind New Zealand, China, and even nine developing nations.

Australia has plummeted down worldwide broadband rankings again, falling to 60th place for download speeds behind our neighbours New Zealand, China, and even nine developing nations.

The disappointing result, revealed today by Ookla Speedtest, saw Australia deliver average download speed six times slower than that of the top performing country, Singapore.

Despite the findings, an NBN Co spokesman said broadband speeds in Australia had still improved on last year, and predicted they would improve again as the rollout continued.

Australia’s broadband speed ranking has fallen despite more NBN connections. Picture: Supplied

Results of the Speedtest Global Index put Australia’s average fixed broadband download speeds at just 33 megabits per second, and uploads at 13Mbps.

By comparison, broadband connections in Singapore delivered an average speed of 197Mbps, Hong Kong residents enjoyed downloads at 169Mbps, and New Zealand received 85Mbps in 24th place.

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In 60th spot, down from 55th position last year, Australia was beaten on broadband speeds by nine developing countries, including Kosovo, Thailand, Serbia, and Belarus.

Telecommunications analyst Paul Budde said the result reflected the “relative poor quality” of Australia’s National Broadband Network, which was now connecting 4.8 million premises.

“The fact that we use inferior infrastructure technology results in a quality that delivers lower speeds in comparison to inftastructure that is used in other countries,” he said.

Federal Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said Australian internet users were unlikely to be surprised by the result, which she also blamed on the Network.

“On every measure taxpayers and consumers are worse off as a result of an NBN that is regrettably slower, costlier and less reliable,” Ms Rowland said.

But an NBN Co spokesman defended Australia’s low rank, saying it represented an improvement on last year.

Federal shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland blamed the NBN Co’s use of “ageing copper” for Australia’s poor broadband ranking.

“Australia’s current average fixed broadband download speed of 33.28Mbps compares favourably with the average speed 12 months ago when it was around 26Mbps,” he said.

“This step change in the average speed of fixed broadband performance points to an overall improvement in speeds once customers connect to the NBN.”

He said the NBN Co expected more than eight million premises to the network “by the end of the rollout,” which was due in 2020.

NBN Co’s chief technology officer Ray Owen has, in the past, pointed to “different links in the chain” as a potential cause of slow download speeds rather than NBN connections.

Despite Australia’s poor fixed broadband ranking, Speedtest found the country ranked higher in mobile internet speeds, putting the country in sixth place with an average download speed of 56Mbps.