NZ broadband performance keeps improving

Average broadband performance continues to improve, the Commerce Commission's June quarter report on broadband services shows.

Telecommunications Commissioner Ross Patterson said the report showed steady improvement in average broadband performance, a trend that had continued since the commission started monitoring broadband performance at the beginning of 2008.

Increased investment seemed to have been a primary driver of these quality improvements, said Patterson.

Further investment would be needed to continue that trend, particularly through the use of caching and similar proven performance enhancing measures.

The commission said the availability of broadband services measured had improved since the last report, with Telecom managing to achieve better than 99.99 per cent internet availability throughout May.

Snap, TelstraClear Cable, Woosh and WorldxChange matched that achievement with better than 99.99 per cent internet availability in July, the commission said.

Performance was generally better the closer the test site was to Auckland, where most web traffic was routed.

National browsing speeds for the best ISPs reached six megabytes per second (Mbps) in Auckland, but declined with distance from Auckland city, apart from Hamilton, to little more than 3Mbps in Dunedin.

The commission said it understood some ISPs were putting in place new backhaul arrangements for South Island cities which may improve browsing speeds.

The data used in the quarterly report was collected by independent benchmarking consultant Epitiro from central sites using premium residential plans.

- NZPA