UK broadband, TV and phone comparator Cable.co.uk has released a global ranking of broadband download speeds, claiming that the average speed in Australia of 7.7 Mbps is well below the 10Mbps deemed by UK telecoms regulator Ofcom to be “the minimum required to cope with the needs of a typical family or small business.”
The ranking puts Australia in 55th position, one rung below the UK, which Cable.co.uk notes is below 20 other European countries. New Zealand was in 17th spot at 16.6Mbps, while Singapore topped the rankings with 55.13Mbps.
The data was collected across the 12 months to May 10 this year by Measurement-Lab, a partnership between New America’s Open Technology Institute, Google Open Source Research, Princeton University’s PlanetLab, and other supporting partners.
According to Cable.co.uk, “The download part of Measurement-Lab’s application measures the throughput of a single TCP connection, attempting to transfer as much data as possible for a period of at least 10 seconds.”
It says this methodology is more indicative of the users’ real-world download experience than other tests, such as that written by Ookla, that “work hard to drive the ‘last mile’, the link between the test initiator and their ISP.” – Stuart Corner
Editor’s note: We reckon Cable.co. UK’s information may be a little out of date. Akamai in June reported Australia’s average download speed at 11.1Mbps – certainly nothing to be proud of, but almost 50pc ahead of Cable Co’s figure. Akamai also rated Australia No 1 in the APAC region in mobile Internet speeds, averaging 15.7Mbps. And the Australian Bureau of Statistics in April this year took a more optimistic view, estimating that 7.5 million broadband subscribers, or more than half the total, were then on speeds of 24Mbps or better. Only 2.2 million had speeds below 8Mbps, according to Stats.