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Internet not so fast in Australia and very expensive



Australians say the country is paying too much for broadband telecommunications – more than people in other countries.

Service providers state many reasons for the high price of broadband internet in Australia, from geographical remoteness and expansiveness which makes the cost to lay copper/fibre for subscriber lines very expensive (Australia is as large in land mass as America, but with greater distances between towns – and Australia is an island (laying cables across the Pacific Ocean to access the United States data hub is costly); to demographic reasons (Australia has a small population of 20 million relative to its land size and therefore telecommunications companies pay a high price to establish their infrastructure – and Australia is urbanized and therefore the cost to rural and remote areas has huge added costs); to economical supply versus demand issues (http://scott.yang.id.au).

Australia is ranked only 24th in the world for its internet speed (www.news.com.au) with South Korean internet the fastest in the world. An annual white paper entitled “State of the Internet” (www.akamai.com) reveals that Latvians and Slovaks have faster internet speeds than Australians. The report studied 628 million IP addresses from 236 countries and regions connected to Akamai cloud platform. In the report’s section on Top Global Cities, Canberra claimed 78th place in the world for its internet speed (similar to Riga in Latvia).

Overall, the report indicates that Australia has an average connection speed of 4.9mbps based on fourth quarter 2011 statistics, ranking it 24th in the world, while small central European countries have speeds of 5.2mbps (Slovakia) and 6.4mbps (Romania). Most of the fastest internet cities were in the Asia Pacific region. South Korea, with the fastest internet speed in the world, has an average connection speed of 17.5mbps. Japan and Hong Kong are second and third in the world with 9.1mbps. On average around the world the internet speed was 2.3mbps. New Zealand is ranked 44th in the world with internet speeds of 3.7mbps.

The Akamai white paper formulated global statistics in terms of countries/regions with internet speed percentages over 5.0mpbs with the following top 10 results: South Korea (83%), The Netherlands (67%), Japan (60%), Hong Kong (57%), Belgium (52%), Switzerland (51%), Latvia (51%), Romania (49%), Czech Republic (47%), and Denmark (44%).

Australians are calling for cheaper, faster, and more reliable internet broadband.

The first roll out of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia will occur over the next three years and connect more than 3.5 million homes in 1,500 towns and suburbs. With the NBN, the government estimates that 90% of Australia can expect speeds up to 100mbps, while the rest will have access to a mixture of wireless and satellite connections.

Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy announced a parliamentary inquiry into technology prices (www.canberratimes.com.au on April 29, 2012). Senator Conroy has signed off on the parliamentary inquiry which will investigate pricing of software and other IT-related material, but the terms of reference are yet to be finalized. The inquiry, conducted by the House of Representatives standing committee on infrastructure and communications, is expected to commence later this year.

Consumer lobby groups, small-to-medium businesses, and individual Australians have welcomed the inquiry.



MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 26, 2013 at 1:35 PM

    The NBN is working for that matter. We need to wait until the Government provide the best service of internet connection in our households.

    ReplyDelete

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