Australian broadband speeds are improving, but not compared to the rest of the world

Australian broadband speeds are improving, but we are still being put to shame by the likes of Kazakhstan and Barbados.

When it comes to internet speeds, Australia continues to go backwards when compared to our international peers.

The country has dropped to 62nd place in a global ranking of broadband speeds, putting us behind a number of developing countries including Kosovo, Kazakhstan and Barbados.

The latest data to confirm our unflattering position comes from Ookla Speedtest. According to the company that provides an online speed test service for internet users, Australia has fallen three places, despite achieving a slightly higher average speed compared to previous months.

For those who used the online service, Australian households notched an average of 35.11 megabits per second for March which is considerably lower than the global average of 57.91 Mbps.

Singapore topped the ranking with a super fast 199.62 Mbps average speed — more than 5.6 times faster than Australia.

Given the huge difference in the size of the two countries — Australia’s vast continental landscape compared to Singapore’s small and densely populated city nation — it’s not a particularly fair comparison. Rounding out the top five was Hong Kong, Monaco, Romania and South Korea — also small nations. However the US came in at number eight with an average speed of 117.31 Mbps.

Our home broadband speeds (on the right) are improving, but not as fast as other countries.

As the National Broadband Network (NBN), which is now connecting nearly five million premises, edges closer to completion, network bosses maintain that speeds will continue to improve and issues will disappear as the rest of the nation moves onto it.

Recent changes to pricing have led to more end-users opting for higher speed tiers with many opting for plans that provide top speeds of 50Mbps. However studies like Ookla’s suggest Australians are still labouring under relatively slow home broadband speeds.

An NBN spokesperson recently defended Australia’s position in the ranking, pointing to the improvement in average speeds over the past year. In early 2018, the average speed was recorded at slightly more than 26 Mbps. In 2017, a separate study put Australia’s average internet speed at just 11.1 Mbps.

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

However the Opposition Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has consistently criticised the much maligned multi-technology mix used to deliver the NBN as the reason for the country’s poor international standing.

While Australia may languish with fixed line broadband, we have one of the most competitive and best performing mobile markets in the world.

The same study ranked Australia as the fifth best country in the world for mobile speeds with an average download speed of 58.87 Mbps.