Australia’s Global Broadband Speed Rank Drops Again

Australia’s Global Broadband Speed Rank Drops Again

Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index ranking for December is out and Australia has fallen another three places, bringing the country down to 68th on the list.

The Speed Index collects data via is speedtest tool and releases a monthly report on the fixed and mobile broadband performance of 177 countries.

Once again, it doesn’t have great things to reveal about Australia. Our average broadband speed of 41.7Mbps per second is almost half the global average of December, which is sitting at 73.5Mbps.

The upload speeds were even worse, coming in at 18.77Mbps, with the global average sitting at 40.39Mbps.

Sitting at the top of the list is Singapore, which is enjoying an average of 200.12Mbps – almost five times Australia’s average. At the bottom is Turkmenistan at 1.71Mbps.

While Australia’s average has climbed from 33.04Mbps in December 2018, its ranking has plummeted by 13 places. This indicates that our speeds are improving as quickly as other countries.

“The Liberal Party promised its multi-technology mix would be faster and cheaper, yet they have delivered a network which costs more to build, more to run and does less,” said Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a statement.

“Regrettably, relative to developed global economies, Australia is not anywhere near where it should be.”

It’s worth noting that Australia has a comparatively large land mass compared to some other countries on the list. However, Canada is similar in size and is currently sitting at 16th on the list at 121.51Mbps.

Fortunately Australia seem to be faring better when it comes to mobile broadband speeds. We’re currently sitting in 6th place with and average of 67.66Mbps down and 16.33Mbps up. However, we did drop from 5th place this month.

Australia clearly has an alarmingly long way to go when it comes to providing fast and affordable fixed broadband to the nation. In August 2019 the country ranked last out of 36 in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library’s affordability rankings for entry-level broadband services in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations.


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