Report: Most Australians Have Crappy Internet Speeds

While the rest of the world surges by with internet speeds that boggle the mind, Aussies sit on the bottom of the world jealously watching on with download speeds often below 24Mbps, according to a study out of the Government.

The survey, commissioned by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, found unsurprisingly that most Australians still have paltry internet download speeds when compared to the rest of the world.

7.1 million Australians are getting less than 24Mbps from the copper network, while 3.7 million others are located in areas where estimated peak speeds are less than 9Mbps. 920,000 customers have less than 4.8Mbps available.

While slow internet sucks, no internet is worse. The survey found that there are still 700,000 premises around the nation that are unable to get any broadband at all. These are the areas that will likely be prioritised from Turnbull’s new multi-technology model (MTM) deployment, which includes fibre-to-the-node, HFC, satellite and high-speed wireless networks.

It isn’t all bad news, however: a surprising 3.1 million Aussies have access to a high-speed broadband connection (over either fibre-to-the-node, hybrid fibre coaxial netoworks and fixed wireless networks). According to the survey, these folks achieve download speeds of between 25Mbps and 110Mbps. Good for them.

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised a report into the speed of Australian broadband prior to his taking office, and has worked with NBN Co to compile the results. The Government and the NBN Co will use the data to prioritise National Broadband Network roll-out areas over the next few years.

The report was released in summary onto Malcolm Turnbull’s website. The rest of the report, according to the SMH will be released soon, containing localised data.

Should the new question Aussie geeks ask each other be ‘how slow is your internet?’ rather than ‘how fast?’. [Malcolm Turnbull via SMH]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.