Speedtest.net’s verdict on NZ broadband speeds
One of the best broadband “speed testers” is speedtest.net. Its slick interface provides estimates of your download and upload speeds at a click of a button. Interestingly enough, speedtest.net provides global statistics on the average speed of users from different countries. Their top 10 countries, by download speed, are:
Japan leads at 9.3Mbps, followed by Sweden on 6.6Mbps. Little surprise that neither Australia, nor New Zealand show in the top 10.
The speedtest.net statistics for the “Australian continent” shows:
In summary:
- Australia’s average download speed, 3.6Mbps, is 39% of the top country’s (Japan);
- New Zealand’s average download speed, 2.4Mbps, is 26% of the top country’s (Japan);
- New Zealand’s average download speed is 67% of Australia’s.
I think we will need two things to improve significantly: ADSL2+ and for Telecom NZ to upgrade their dusty backhaul network!
(Notes: We believe that speedtest.net is only using the top performing IP addresses in each country when calculating their stats. Not sure what percentile they are using. YMMV.)
10layers.com covers the next generation internet from the physical to the political layers.
9 comments
Robby | March 19th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Telecom will only improve the network if there is going to be a decent return on their investment. They will also only be upgrading those areas with ADSL2+ where there are high population areas, where they can get the most return on that investment. They are obviously a business so will only do things that will benefit their shareholders.
The question is, why aren’t other companies, such as Telstra and Vodafone, investing in NZs infrastructure throughout the entire country. Telstra has a competing, but more up to date fibre optic network in Wellington and Christchurch, and have been getting a healthy return on this, but haven’t rolled it out in any other parts. Why? Does it require Government investment, as currently private companies don’t seem to be interested, or can’t see enough of a return on the investment to invest in NZs telecommunications infrastructure.
Pat | March 19th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Telstraclear wanted to get into Auckland but the city (or regional?) coucil voted against it. They also have Wimax setup in Tauranga don’t they? Slingshot also have Wimax setup in another town too. Once unbundling kicks in we’ll probably see a few of the bigger competitors starting to invest more.
10layers | March 19th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Robby,
Good questions. I think the answers lie in the number of years required to get a positive return on investment. That coupled with the historical regulatory environment have meant that Telecom NZ could easily make it very hard for a challenger. Having said that, a number of providers are now investing in NZ: TelstraClear with its 3G network in Tauranga, CallPlus with its WiMAX initative, Woosh, Vodafone, etc. Investments are taking place. Of course, we would all like them to be more aggressive!
Steve | May 8th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
This is a total travesty, I used the speedtest.net test just a couple of moments ago and it cheerily informed me I’m getting 3.5mb download speed. Hurrah !!
The problem is that my actual performance is reminiscent of a 64k modem. Lets face it, this particular little backwater is going nowhere anytime soon. Our government are idiots, the ruling telco are thieves and the majority of the population are placated using the usual hypnotics of sport and scandal. I give up, I’m going to reverse immigrate.
Robby | June 1st, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Has this website been abandoned? No new articles for months….
10layers | July 15th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Not abandoned. But many apologies for not posting in a very long time!
I will be back soon with regular posts.
dollar | July 15th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Hey guys, have just found this site. Was wondering whether you guys (since you know what your talking about) would know why there is such a small bandwidth limit on our internet. I mean the speeds i am downloading are alright but its just this stupid cap that telecom is putting on, that I’m suffering from. Does anyone know of any plans to open up the bandwidth? or any other companies which do not have a limit? Just wondering since overseas there seems to be no data caps.
Cheers guys
Mark
Foo | July 30th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Looking forward to new posts soon! :-)
Hey dollar - yes, in NZ most companies do put a datacap on the download limits. Some have better rates then others - it pays to have a look at the various ISPs and see what they offer. Some offer the ability to buy additional data blocks e.g. Telstra/Slingshot and this allows you an element of control over your spend.
Отчет по скорости доступа от Speedtest.net at Optolog.com | October 17th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
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