Optus crowned fastest internet provider after overtaking TPG

It might not feel like it, but Australia’s internet appears to show signs of getting better as a new provider is crowned the fastest.

The consumer watchdog has revealed its latest list of the fastest internet services, and there's a new provider in first place.

Optus has dethroned TPG in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest Measuring Broadband Australiareport by delivering the highest percentage of maximum download speed during peak periods.

All of the retail service providers (who purchase access to the national broadband network at wholesale rates from the company in charge of it and then sell that access on to their customers) returned speeds between 76 per cent and 87 per cent of the maximum plan speeds across NBN and ADSL during the hours of 7pm – 11pm for August this year.

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Exetel, Optus and Telstra all showed signs of improvement, for Optus it was enough to overtake TPG, who along with the rest of the RSPs tested, saw its performance decline.

ACCC chair Rod Sims said the RSPs showed signs of improvement, but that consumers needed to be aware how their speed claims stack up against their actual performance.

“We are seeing significant differences in download speeds during busy hours between RSPs offering NBN broadband plans,” Mr Sims said.

The ACCC has revealed the fastest internet services.

“This shows how RSP performances can vary, and why it pays for consumers to do their research. We encourage consumers to compare the busy hour speed claims made by RSPs with their real-world performance, as set out in the Measuring Broadband Australia results, especially if they are paying more in the expectation of faster broadband speeds.”

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Most RSPs actually managed to deliver average download speeds that exceeded their advertised speeds in almost all of the test periods, according to the report, but the ACCC has called out Dodo/iPrimus for basing its advertised speeds on an average of all evening performance, not just in peak periods when the network is busier.

“We will be following this up with Dodo/iPrimus as this approach means it will fall short whenever its speeds dip, as they did this quarter,” Mr Sims said.

He added consumers should contact their RSP if they’re not getting what they were promised.

Services that never come close to reaching their maximum advertised speed dropped from 12.4 per cent to 11.4 per cent, suggesting some progress.

Those on fibre to the node (FTTN) connections may not feel the benefits though.

One in four FTTN connections on the two fastest consumer-grade NBN tiers are underperforming, and rarely record speeds better than 75 per cent of their maximum plan speeds at any time during the day, not just in busier periods.

Have you noticed an increase in your internet speed? Let us know in the comments below.