Consumers on NBN fixed-line connections experienced strong speed performance in December last year, according to the ACCC's twelfth quarterly Measuring Broadband Australia report.
Retail service providers achieved between 85.0 and 98.9 per cent of maximum plan speeds across all fixed-line plans in the busy evening hours of 7-11pm in December 2020. This result is slightly higher than the previous report, which tested October 2020.
"In December, consumers received the highest overall speeds since the ACCC began monitoring broadband performance in 2018, and internet service providers delivered a higher percentage of maximum plan speeds in the busy evening hours," ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.
The report, for the first time, also provides an indicative view on the performance of the NBN fixed wireless network. In December 2020, consumers on NBN fixed wireless connections experienced average speeds of 78.5 per cent of maximum plan speed, but that declined to around 68.4 per cent of plan speed between 7-11pm.
"Consumers on fixed wireless connections experienced quite good speeds during the daytime, but we observed a reduction from 5pm when the network is busier," Ms Brakey said.
"Despite the decline in speed, consumers on the fixed wireless network achieved sufficient speeds to access a range of internet applications during the busy evening hours."
Proportion of underperforming services drops
The report reveals that the number of consumers experiencing underperforming broadband services has continued to slowly decline, falling to 7.7 per cent in December 2020. The figure was 13.9 per cent when the ACCC first started measuring the proportion of underperforming services in May 2018. Underperforming services have technical limitations that prevent speeds from ever reaching the consumer's maximum plan speed.
"A significant proportion of fibre to the node connections delivered maximum speeds below the maximum retail plan speed that the consumer has selected," Ms Brakey said.
"We encourage both NBN Co and retail service providers to help consumers on connections that do not perform to their plan speed."
"In many cases, these limited speeds are caused by modem or in-home wiring issues and can be fixed with a visit from a technician, or by moving consumers to lower and less expensive speed plans to ensure they receive the speeds they pay for," Ms Brakey said.
Higher number of simultaneous streams
Improvements to the way that streaming service provider Netflix compresses and sends content to consumers is enabling households on NBN fixed-line plans to simultaneously support more high and ultra high definition content streams. As content streaming accounts for a significant proportion of internet traffic, these changes are also relieving pressure on the NBN network.
Consumers using the popular high definition Netflix streaming packages can now simultaneously stream more content. The report shows that all NBN12 services can now support up to four simultaneous high definition Netflix streams. In October 2020, only 52 per cent of NBN12 services could stream two simultaneous high definition streams.
"Strongly performing broadband services, in conjunction with technological improvements, now makes simultaneous high definition streaming an option for consumers on any fixed-line NBN plan," Ms Brakey said.
Figure 1. High definition Netflix streaming by plan during busy hours - October and December 2020
