There’s more people on sat than is generally realised - and I’d suggest people on sat, especially where I am, are (more) isolated than most. Is the remote/latency nature of terrestrial services also an aspect these tests are missing. I’m sensing it’s pretty much big city only…
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No I think it is just a lack of participation in that area of the NBN eg Satellite. Certainly from the feedback @gordon has posted before it is just the numbers are not yet there for results to be posted but I think @gordon or Louise Hudson are best placed to either confirm or deny that is the only reason. So to see more results I think we need much greater participation in the program from the Satellite, & Fixed Wireless communities too.
It would also be good to see a few more metrics eg drop outs being reported/tracked particularly for those services greatly affected by signal eg Satellite but I don’t know how easy/hard to achieve this would be.
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Yes it is still lack of numbers for satellite, next time I see the only other people I know on satellite (and I know they are not happy with it), I’ll suggest they get involved.
They are not currently monitoring for dropouts etc, I’ve asked Louise about that previously. That is unfortunate, since it is one of the main problems I’ve been encountering.
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Like you say @gordon it would be good to see that dropout and similar such data. Even not just for satellite it would be good to have that information shared as it would help find the holes in the system that need to be fixed/addressed. Of course power outages and hardware failures at the premises would be hard to filter out but perhaps there are ways to mitigate the results this would produce.
How do we get more of the Satellite and other community people involved?
Are Choice willing to spend some money on advertising to increase participation? @BrendanMays I commit to and promise to pay at least $20 to help fund a campaign to do the advertising, you have my details so if it does go ahead send me an email with account details/Bpay or similar and it will be paid post haste.
Is Social Media being hit with the request and results?
Could a Current Affairs item promote it?
Have the current results (including a request for more participants) been sent to journos and media outlets?
Any other ideas?
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I think a segment on The Checkout is called for 
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I have contacted the ABC, A Current Affairs and The Project about the program. Also tweeted the sign up and results links.
Anyone else able to tweet etc?
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Not sure about the stats being collated or reported - but. for two days now my connection has been SO very slow, a 90yo in a zimmer frame would have gotten there sooner… it would have been cheaper and easier to use a pre paid dongle.
I had to travel back and forth 7 times from a remote locality before the clowns on ‘high’ got it right, airfares alone were a minimum $650 return… not to mention hire cars and double costs of running a household whilst family continued with day to day commitments… not a joke… very frustrsting and No compensation for inconvenience, can’t even get a class action going - my claims came in under $7K!!
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Could you fill in the details a bit better so we can connect your NBN experience with your travel experience?
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some light reading …
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Speaking of congestion…
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Newest Choice Monitoring data has been released and of the tested products only 4 made Recommended status and again only 25/5 products at that.
The email from eMetric:
"Dear xxxxxxxxxx,
The latest set of results measuring Australia’s broadband performance have been published today.
CHOICE’s broadband performance leaderboard
Each month CHOICE provides a new set of data that reflects the latest broadband performance in homes across Australia, and the latest results are now live.
Access to other results
Our initial focus is to use the power of all of your devices together to help CHOICE produce aggregated monthly results. However, a number of you have asked about access to your own individual results. We’re working towards seeing if we can make this possible, so register your interest below if you’re keen on seeing your own broadband performance data.
Individual Results
Program update
This is a massive undertaking because we need 1000’s of these devices out there in order to increase the accuracy of the broadband performance results. With over 2000 devices in homes today, consider this a beta, and a taste of what’s to come.
Lastly, a shout out to your mates, friends or families to get on board. Share the link below and encourage them to register - especially if their broadband service is fibre-to-the-node (FttN) or hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC). It’s free, remember.
Kind regards,
Louise Hudson
Customer Engagement Team
Email: helpdesk@emetric.com.au
Phone: 1300 012 472
To the above request for more participants I would really encourage those who use or know of people who use Fixed Wireless and Satellite to get those users involved.
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It is interesting to note that on every metric measured for the Optus 25/5 plans FTTP is slower than FTTN.
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I have several questions that arise from the data, that one being one of them that I have raised with my NBN network experts/friends. They read the details with glee as it supports most of their negative thoughts on the NBN, CVC, and RSPs. When I finish my discussions with them I might have some better guesses as to why this anomaly appears to be the case.
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Still no detail on the spread of testing - city vs regional vs remote, etc … is this relevant to anyone not in a big city? hint: if thats the only place where testing is happening, the answer is no.
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Choice, your broadband speed measuring program is an embarrassment and you should stop publishing data until you are able to provide accurate correct data.
The flaws in the program are numerous, but to mention a few:
Telstra 25/5 FTTN - Shows an average upload speed of 6.36 and a peak of 8.73Mbps - when the physical limit of the connection is 5Mbps!
Telstra 25/5 FTTP - Again, the average and peak exceed the possible limits of the line.
iiNet 25/5 FTTN - Shows a peak upload rate of 15.17Mbps - over 3 times the physical limit of the connection.
As an organisation that champions against deceptive and misleading information, why is your program so flawed, and why are you publishing flawed data. How can we trust any of your data or conclusions when it’s so obviously broken - those examples are obvious, but that doesn’t mean the other data was not flawed.
I nominate the Choice Broadband monitoring program for a 2018 shonky award.
Dear DrSpock, I for one will be joining the program once the NBN arrives. No doubt the NBN favours Choice members!
Technical content aside many NBN services are capable of data rates (speeds) well above what you sign up for. The method our ISP’s (or RSP in NBN C0 Speak) use to slow our data down and the concise details of how you connect to the NBN might explain why you have been blessed and why your service expectations have been exceeded.
In simple speak - your ISP may have limited options in constraining your peak upload data rate, compared to being able to control the rate at which data is downloaded to your humble abode. No doubt some guru at Choice can offer a more technical explanation of the miracle. You did note that the Choice program reported peak speeds.
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I don’t think you understand what you are criticising. The figures that you label the physical limit, that you then conclude cannot be exceeded, are nothing of the kind.
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I’m afraid both of you have no idea what you are talking about. As a network engineer I do.
A 25/5 connection is unable to exceed 5Mbit upload. It’s simply impossible. Due to TCP/IP overhead, the actual maximum will be slightly lower than 5Mbit.
Nbnco are quite capable of limiting speed, on fttn this is achieved by manipulating the target SNR to modify the VDSL sync speed. The VDSL sync speed cannot be exceeded.
The fact that the average and peak speeds are shown to be exceeding this shows the data collection is flawed. It’s not that the services are exceeding the speed, there is a glaring error in the data collection.
Hi @DrSpock, thanks for the feedback and apologies about the errors. I’m getting in touch with our project managers with your report and will get back to you with an explanation.
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Don’t forget before pointing the finger, there are two parties involved here. The Choice program (eMetric Smart Meter) could have bugs, like any programs which have been developed in the past…however…before pointing the finger, one needs to be very sure that the ISPs speed restrictions are as quoted in their contracts. It could also be plausible that the ISPs have not shaped uploads thinking that the network limitations were sufficient.
I expect that Choice will respond to your concerns in due course.
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