The regulator is concerned that the speeds of Fibre Max will only hit 72 percent of the advertised speeds, or around 650Mbps. In the meantime, Canada is crying.
The New Zealand Commerce Commission (ComCom) published the December version of its study Measuring Broadband NZ, which reveals that the nation’s Fiber 100 services reached advertised speeds 99 percent of the time.
The Fibre 100 plan delivers 98.6/21.2Mbps in peak times, including upload, with Fibre Max plans delivering 637/470Mbps in peak times, and VDSL plans delivering 43/12.6Mbps in peak times.
“The report shows Fibre 100 plans are delivering 99% of advertised speeds with all reported providers performing well. Overall, Fibre 100 plans are delivering a great internet experience to consumers,” ComCom head of telecommunications Simon Thomson said.
“While Fibre Max plans are achieving fast download speeds, we are concerned that they are only delivering 72% of providers’ advertised speeds. We caution providers to ensure they can back up their speed claims and will be monitoring this closely in future reports.”
Fixed wireless links have average rates of 22.7/15.8Mbps and in peak times ADSL offered 9.1/0.8Mbps.
The Commission said in its advice that Fiber Max plans are “unlikely to make a noticeable difference over Fiber 100” unless half a dozen people stream video at the same time. It also stated, however, that multi-user households could see a decrease in quality when consuming overseas content on Fibre 100 plans.
Based on the distributor, fiber Max packages providing 1Gbps at layer 2 are marketed to New Zealanders as offering rates varying between 900Mbps to 950Mbps. New Zealand has sensibly resisted the kind of brain worm thought that contributed to Australia’s internet wholesaler, NBN, opting to over-allocate their proposals for TCP / IP headers.
At the edge of those on Fiber Max, ComCom said the lowest decile gets just 22 percent of the advertised speeds, while the lowest decile on Fiber 100 can get 81.5 percent of the expected speeds.
The regulator said it has rectified the interconnect problem that hindered the report’s previous version.
The study contained analyses undertaken during the Rugby World Cup, in which New Zealand failed to defend its crown, in classic Kiwi style, and reported no effect on the nation’s network of online games. Use Netflix in the All Blacks match versus South Africa was the only major blip, culminating in 97 percent as well as normal link results.
ComCom said it needed people to sign up for a broader range of data in Christchurch, Auckland, and all rural areas across New Zealand.
The Australian broadband market continues to look like a continent-sized bin fire compared to the steady numbers in New Zealand.
In November, the similar Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced that in its new broadband speed testing system, only three ISPs were able to increase the amount of bandwidth provided during busy periods.
Optus is now the champion at 87.6% of advertised speeds achieved, led by 86.3% TPG, 84.8% Exetel, 84.2% Aussie Broadband, 84.2% MyRepublic and 83.8% Telstra. The increase of the rear is iiNet at 82.6% and Dodo / iPrimus at 76.4%.
