Australia slips out of broadband Top 20

By Ry Crozier on Oct 19, 2010 1:05 PM
Filed under Telco/ISP

Can our networks meet tomorrow's needs?

Australian fixed broadband connections averaged above 5 Mbps for the first time in 2010 but weren't deemed "ready for tomorrow", according to the latest global Broadband Quality Survey commissioned by Cisco Systems.

The 5 Mbps downlink speed result was higher than the 4.4 Mbps recorded last year and 3.97 Mbps in 2008, according to statistics published on the vendor's website.

But that was largely where the good news for Australia ended.

The 5 Mbps downlink speed in Australia was behind the average global download speed of 5.9 Mbps.

Uplink speeds remained relatively flat in the three years the survey has been running - growing from 439 Kbps in 2008 to 564 Kbps on average this year. The global average was 1.77 Mbps in 2010.

That was a concern because the report's authors found that broadband consumption patterns globally were "diverging, from a basic household requiring 2.7 Mbps and consuming about 20 GB a month, to a smart and connected home commanding over 20 Mbps and a consumption of 500 GB a month".

Australia was, however, kicking goals on latency. It cut average latency from 100 ms to 82 ms this year, putting it well ahead of the global average of 142 ms.

Broadband Quality Score III

View more presentations from Cisco Systems.

Australia's global rank on broadband - based on a ‘quality' index developed by the Saïd business school at Oxford University - has slipped six places in three years, from 15th in the world in 2008 to outside the top 20 this year.

The nation's actual quality score has been basically the same over a three-year period.

Australia was seen to be lagging in its readiness to cater to future internet applications and on the "digital divide" between city and regional areas.

Over half of the countries included in the survey - 38 countries in real terms - were said to have "conquered the digital divide, with less evident differences between the broadband quality inside and outside their main cities."

Australia ranked 53rd out of 66 countries when it came to bridging the digital divide.

The survey report also said that 14 countries in 2010 were "already prepared for the internet "applications of tomorrow compared to only one country in 2008."

Australia did not make this list, nor did it qualify for the category "comfortably enjoying today's applications".

Its networks were capable of "meeting the needs of today's applications", alongside those in New Zealand, Thailand and Brazil.

Australia's score on mobile broadband was also surprisingly low, given rapid take-up of services. The country ranked 31st on broadband quality compared to other countries.

The top three were Sweden (where LTE is being rolled out), Denmark and the United States.

14 comments in this discussion

"Few would recall Telecom in 1989 (before it become Telstra) announcing they were looking at putting fibe to the node on the heels of British Telecom (BT) announcing they had just completed a fibre ..."

By Serendipidude

Tags

cisco, business, school, oxford, top20, quality, broadband, survey

Visionstream lands NBN contract worth up to $1bn

Elders puts SAP cloud rollout on ice

Govt intervention boosts broadband availability: regulator

Conroy, Turnbull joust over NBN equity numbers

Breaking Stories

Freedom Cable yanks Australia from subsea rollout

Optus kicks off TD-LTE network

Syrian hackers compromise FT website

Linfox crunches big data to keep trucks on time

Decoding NetSuite's anti-SAP bravado

Comments: 14

GK of Sydney Oct 19, 2010 2:26 PM	I'd like to see how wireless would have been a solution to that. Anyone who believes wireless would have been an answer to our future communication needs, is severely inept in matters of tech. Abbott supporters regarding this matter are examples of utter idiocy.
epimetheus Oct 19, 2010 3:09 PM	Yeah right on GK. Also, anybody who votes or supports Labor in this NBN garbage must, of necessity, fall into the same category! Fast broadband and Australia in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
ozjohns Oct 19, 2010 3:37 PM	Many of the countries with faster speeds or better infrastructure don't try to meet an identical standard for 95%+ of the population. Or they are island/peninsula states like Singapore/Taiwan/S.Korea etc..., where population/km is way different to Australia. What I don't understand is why can't we get 85% of the population to 100Mbps (ie Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Sydney/Wollongong, Newcastle, Gold Coast/Brisbane/Sunshine Coast - fast and for way less than $40B. You could then cascade realistic 20-30Mbps speeds to regions affordably, often by wireless, due to reduced bandwidth needs because of the base load fibre-to-home in cities. Given a bit of time, we should let new technical solutions develop in coming years to then close the gap for the 15% of the population that's immediately on a lesser service. That may not be 'politically correct' or visionary. But when you have a budget deficit of $100B+ already, beggars should be careful what they ask for. Saving $15B - $20B on NBN Mk. 1 would deliver a lot of telemedicine and tele-education for the regions, and speed could be delivered by bundling multiple channels as required for faster speed in emergency situations, as with older ISDN concepts. Is that an impossible alternative way?
Bob Oct 19, 2010 3:47 PM	Broadband in Australia is a political issue only. From what politians tell you, you would think Australia has no fibre in the ground at all. The reality is of course that Telstra has more fibre in the ground than probably any other Telco in the world. One carrier covers 7 Million square kilometres. The only thing stopping the punters getting it is pollies from both side blocking it to score points. Despite the fibre itself possibly lasting a long time, the stuff each end of it doesn't. You might instal 1G then you're back installing 2.5G then you're back installing 10G then multiple 10G. Who's going to keep upgrading NBN? As for the wireless, I don't know how they derive their stats. I have both Next G wireless broadband and ADSL. The Next G is faster than the ADSL so I have the strange situation of having faster broadband in my truck than I do at home.
Rossyduck Oct 19, 2010 4:02 PM	The sad thing is that if NBN Co are allowed to set where the NBN is going to be delivered, the outback areas will be even worse off. Those marginal aboriginal and other poorer communities that have become collection points for those who cannot afford to live in major towns and that need most to be drawn into mainstream Australia will just become further marginalised. Quite frankly that is where tax $$ and subsidised internet should be provided, and leave the urban areas to private enterprise (after fixing the legislation leveling the playing field for them.
HubertCumberdale Oct 19, 2010 4:48 PM	Quote: Australia slips out of broadband Top 20 Thank you Richard Alston Thank you Helen Coonan Thank you John Howard ozjohns wrote: Many of the countries with faster speeds or better infrastructure don't try to meet an identical standard for 95%+ of the population. Or they are island/peninsula states like Singapore/Taiwan/S.Korea etc..., where population/km is way different to Australia. What I don't understand is why can't we get 85% of the population to 100Mbps (ie Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Sydney/Wollongong, Newcastle, Gold Coast/Brisbane/Sunshine Coast - fast and for way less than $40B. You could then cascade realistic 20-30Mbps speeds to regions affordably, often by wireless, blah blah blah Sounds like a plan the coalition would come up with. It's not a very good one either.
ozjohns Oct 19, 2010 8:32 PM	Actually I have no party affiliations. But in technology history shows solutions to seemingly impossble limits emerge with great regularity. If health and education are both in need of "revolutions" (and remote medical services definitely are), they should be given direct higher priority than a commecially questionable NBN. It's questionable because is not being signed up for by those few yet to have it past their door in Tasmania. By all means legislate for a level playing field. If people want 100Mbps someone will provide it, for a price. If they don't like the price, Australians should not have to wear it regardless, just because some politician reckons they know best and spends $42B of our money.
HubertCumberdale Oct 19, 2010 10:23 PM	ozjohns wrote: Actually I have no party affiliations. No one said you did. ozjohns wrote: But in technology history shows solutions to seemingly impossble limits emerge with great regularity. I hear Australia is planning a FTTH network. ozjohns wrote: If health and education are both in need of "revolutions" (and remote medical services definitely are), they should be given direct higher priority than a commecially questionable NBN. LOL... ozjohns wrote: It's questionable because is not being signed up for by those few yet to have it past their door in Tasmania. You are aware the Tasmanian rollout was a technical trial? No? you are now... ozjohns wrote: By all means legislate for a level playing field. If people want 100Mbps someone will provide it, for a price. If they don't like the price, Ever heard of raising the standard? How useful is a 100Mbps connection to me if I have to worry about whether the connection at the other end has the capacity to receive what I'm sending them? Also I've said this before but It's not just about the download there are upload capacities to consider too. ozjohns wrote: Australians should not have to wear it regardless Go back to dialup, the future is coming whether you like it or not... ozjohns wrote: just because some politician reckons they know best and spends $42B of our money. It's not just some politician, most Australians want the NBN and they want the government to spend $26billion of our money on it.
Ace Oct 19, 2010 11:28 PM	The thing is, 'slipping out of the top 20' is today, and by the time the NBN rollout is halfway complete, we could well be outside the top 30. At least there is a plan to avoid becoming a broadband backwater, and on a positive note, we're keeping up with NZ!
scan06disk Oct 20, 2010 1:44 PM	With how slow the 5 or so sites are taking for completion, HFC providers (BP & OPTUS) should in the mean time update all their nodes to DOCSIS 3.0 at least....
RDEFCON1 Oct 20, 2010 2:59 PM	Of course we're slipping. There's been this NBN thing coming for years and years, presenting massive sovereign risk to any private investment, and so all the ISPs have been minimising their investments to areas with fast payback periods. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. 1) Say we need a new network and threaten to disrupt the market by forming a government monopoly and legislating to prevent competition. 2) Wait for private companies to get scared out of investing, so standards slip and our place in 'world rankings' goes backwards. 3) Build network at massive cost and take credit for getting us back where we would have been if they'd just left well enough alone. Naturally, the damage has mostly been done already - so NBN here we come!
anonymous Oct 20, 2010 7:44 PM	@RDEFCON1, No, this NBN thingy has not been coming for years and years; more like 18 months. Of course there was a period of many years before that when your corporation had endless opportunity, including having a very amenable govt, to plan and build for the future. And guess what? They didn't. It seems they and the then govt were content to see CAN ownership used to hold back tech development while providing poor service at an exorbitant cost. So it seems you're quite right about "the damage has mostly been done already."
DazzaJ Oct 20, 2010 8:02 PM	How quick people forget, that Telstra wanted to upgrade the network MANY years ago. Minimal cost to the government ? 43 BIllion ? That shouldn't take too many generation to get back! Many people in REAL australia would love to be able to get 5 mbps. I bet you the eastern states get far better than 5 Mbps while good old SA, WA and NT get 800 - 1000 bps if on high speed connection.
Serendipidude Oct 21, 2010 7:47 AM	Few would recall Telecom in 1989 (before it become Telstra) announcing they were looking at putting fibe to the node on the heels of British Telecom (BT) announcing they had just completed a fibre rollout to every home across the whole of London. Just proves the total lack of comptetition and how VERY pathetic the Australian Internet is thanks to Telstra's abuse of their monopoly power and utter contempt for their customers.