COVID-19 Hits Global Internet Speeds, Australia Flat

Despite the coronavirus outbreak putting pressure on global networks, Australia’s internet speeds have stayed relatively flat over the past few weeks.

Speedtest.net is monitoring global mobile and broadband network performance during the pandemic, and added data showing little change in Australia as of this morning.

“Mean download speed over fixed broadband in Australia remained relatively flat during the weeks of February 24, March 2 and March 9. Mobile download speed in Australia increased during the same period while mobile latency remained flat,” it said.

The same cannot be said for other regions: China in particular is only just beginning to improve again after suffering a big drop in download speeds and an increase in latency in January, while hard-hit Italy has seen falls as well during its nation-wide lockdown. Though overall US speeds have remained normal, San Francisco and Westchester counties are also experiencing declines.

The impact of the government’s social distancing measures has yet to be seen on speeds here in Australia; however, with traffic to potentially rise by 40 per cent, NBN has already begun taking measures to augment the network.