Australian telcos are now required to advertise their upload speeds, with a three-month timeline to begin prominently including this information in marketing material.

This comes after an ACCC probe into Australian broadband practices.

“While information about broadband download speeds is widely available, information about upload speeds has become less visible in retail marketing,” the ACCC’s report states.

“Since 2020, upload speeds have almost disappeared from much of the marketing of retail broadband services to consumers.

“In addition, advertised download speeds are not a reliable indicator of upload speeds consumers can expect to receive because retail providers can choose the upload speeds to provision.”

The ACCC points out how NBN Co offers both 100/40 Mbps and 100/20 Mbps wholesale services.

“Our principal finding is that retail providers should make typical busy period upload speeds information available in their broadband marketing, in a similar way to how they already provide this information for download speeds.”

Australian telcos and retail providers will now have three months to “make typical busy period upload speeds information available in their broadband marketing, in a similar way to how they already provide this information for download speeds.”