ACCC Reports on NBN Performance

Edit: New Readers to the topic can go directly to the June 2023 report by clicking here.

I recall early in the year Telstra were going to publish speeds achieved by their customers and there was this in April

Has any data been made public yet?

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Hi @Geoff2, I haven’t heard any updates about the ACCC’s program, but we’ll keep an eye out for any news. We are performing a study at CHOICE as well and I’m told the early results are now starting to flow in. Once we have enough data and can perform an analysis, you’ll here more from us as well. I’ll endeavor to post about here in the forum.

In the meantime, here’s some more info on the CHOICE project:

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To find out what is happening with the ACCC’s speed testing, you can subscribe to their news letter at:

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Thanks for the tip, Subscibed.

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The NBN pushed back on publishing speed data because it is the RSPs’ business and responsibility.

Their formal statement on their business face is they are in the world of reaction and just enough is good enough, not proactive future looking planning or action.

At least one RSP has responded to the performance problem by, well make you own judgement. This is from Primus’ site. Obfuscation because they think it protects them from false advertising speeds they might or might not be able to deliver, but I suspect there could easily be 3 devices that could oversubscribe any NBN connection possible. What is their answer when it is not ‘ideal for 3 devices’ even on the ultimate plan? nb. The few other RSP sites I checked still have ranges of expected performance for the tiers.

The NBN business plan and how it affects the relationship and experience between the parties (NBN, RSP, us) is breath taking. Calling it wrong and amateurish would be too kind.

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As the connection rate of FTTN customers is building there will be more and more people realise that they are losers in the node lotto and will never achieve much more connection speed than the basic offerings from RSP’s.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the NBN business plan. After reading the last Statement of Expectation - Shareholder Minister, I emailed NBN inquiring about some elements of information that was supposed to be published that I couldn’t find. Got a response back that looked like a robot got keywords from my emails and pasted parts of NBN FAQ in an answer. Either feel like they treat people like they are really dumb or they have really dumb people answering inquiries. Anyway I forwarded the email to Minister Fifield as shareholder representative for the people and asked if he could help but he never replied, so I guess he thinks we are all dumb too.

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Glad I wasn’t holding my breath.

So it took the ACCC from April to now to organise the program which is hoped to yield first results nearly 12 months after they first announced the plan. The tendering process was apparently already underway as at April 7.

This is from the link in opening post
“The program will be administered by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which will receive $7 million over four years from 1 July. A tendering process to find an independent provider to run the program is underway, with comparative information to be published in the second half of the year.”

Haven’t really paid much attention to the ACCC activities in the past, hope this is an aberration of the way they operate and not just another example of a poorly operated public department.

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Doesn’t sound like anyone in the government has a clue …

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Perhaps they should have just joined Choice’s program? They would at least have boxes in the houses already and would be getting data already. Hmmm maybe send the money to Choice to administer the program.

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Perhaps the government-side program is actually working to plan? What is not publicised rarely hurts.

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I also noted they had to pay someone outside of Australia for their program…didn’t we have the expertise in Australia for it? I know we do have the businesses who can and do but again throw the money over the horizon seems to be the order of the day.

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I suspect that may have been a consequence of free trade agreements, especially those with or similar to those with the US. Been there, had to deal with that. Most tenders have to be open to foreign entities who enjoy a scale of resources or experience (that could easily be irrelevant in context) but that are unavailable domestically. Evaluation criteria that are not ‘fair and level’ can lead to suits or contested outcomes.

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From email today:

Dear Phil,

Our Measuring Broadband Australia program has moved to its next phase. Very soon we’ll start sending out our testing devices, called Whiteboxes, to selected volunteers who have already signed up to have their broadband speeds tested.

We’ll be using this data to give customers clearer information about the broadband speeds they can expect to receive when they’re comparing different NBN plans. The first results of the speed tests are expected to be released by the end of March 2018.

Working with SamKnows, an experienced internet testing provider, we’ll be selecting our first group of volunteers and contacting them over the coming months.
Getting involved

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer and haven’t already signed up, there’s still time — complete our online form at broadband monitoring and performance program.

To make sure our reports are accurate and reliable we need the right mix of volunteers. Not everyone who registers will be selected, but if you’re not picked at first we may still contact you later as our program grows.

If you’re selected, you’ll get more information about how the Whitebox and testing program works, the reports you’ll be able to access about your own broadband performance and the opportunity to confirm whether you still want to be involved in the program.
More information

You can learn more about the Measuring Broadband Australia program at monitoring broadband performance.

We’ve also updated the information about broadband speeds on our website to help you when you’re considering the offers made by internet service providers.

Kind regards,

Measuring Broadband Australia program
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

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NBN finally caved into reason and accepted one of the problems the NBN is problematic as a business has been them, but not yet accepting anything about their pig’s breakfast of technologies.

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Not yet, but it is coming:
https://www.google.com/url?hl=en-GB&q=https://accc.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D2d4af35bb8308428c89cac9a4%26id%3De10a607644%26e%3Db0359a80dd&source=gmail&ust=1513749759785000&usg=AFQjCNEPX88LSo-p9tvFf55RrBQ4DdYwQg

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News flash! Blind Freddy has reported.

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Interestingly in the article the RH Mr Fitch says about 80% of people have only taken up the 12 and 25 Mbps plans. I would conjecture that is because most are only sold those plans because the RSPs can’t promise any higher speeds because of the network issues including the deteriorating copper lines, the RSPs don’t want any more compensation claims or blasts from the ACCC & TIO!

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Hot off the inbox, and I am not on the NBN yet - in the too hard basket so far:

Thank you for signing up to updates on our Measuring Broadband Australia program – which will provide consumers with information on the real world performance of broadband plans.

Our initial test group has now been selected and results from this group will form the basis of our first report in March 2018.

More volunteers will be added to the program as it progresses. If you’ve already volunteered, you may be emailed by our testing provider, SamKnows to receive a Whitebox testing device. So please keep a look out for an email from them and respond promptly when you receive it.

We’ll let you know when our first report is available at accc.gov.au.

Kind regards,

Measuring Broadband Australia team
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

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From the Choice one:

"Dear ------------,

It’s been a while since we last communicated; we’ve been flat out getting as many of you connected with one of our devices as possible, so a big thank you for your patience :slight_smile:

We’re well on our way. eMetric devices have been distributed to homes across Australia, and thousands have activated their devices so that we can measure broadband performance.

Your eMetric device is doing great work!
Your device is working perfectly and sending us important data about your internet service. Thank you :slight_smile:

What’s being measured
Your generous participation is enabling us to measure:

  1. Average download speed (peak/off-peak).
  2. Average upload speed (peak/off-peak).
  3. Average latency (think ‘response time’ for peak/off-peak).

Program update
Our next update will contain a link to the first monthly report about internet service performance from across Australia, and this first report from CHOICE will be published in February. We’re excited to be collaborating with you on this important program and can’t wait to share the results with you.

Access to other results
A number of you have asked about access to your own individual results. Our initial focus is to use the power of all of your devices together to help CHOICE produce monthly results. But we haven’t forgotten this request and have just started investigating what we can potentially do.

FAQs
The FAQs should answer any other questions you have. But if you need help, or you’re unclear about the next steps, please get in touch.

Thanks again for your participation.

Kind regards,

Louise Hudson
Customer Engagement Team
Email: helpdesk@emetric.com.au
Phone: 1300 012 472 "

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I’ll be interested to see if there is a single test box from any camp within a thousand kilometres of here :slight_smile:

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