Aussie Broadband
As more evidence (Do we need more?) that Australia is behind the tech game, ZDNet has posted a neat a little app that allows you to test the speed of your broadband connection. Not only that, you can compare your results in relation to averages by countries around the world.
We signed up with iiNet not long ago on one of their Naked DSL plans and I must say I’ve never been happier. Pages load at sub second speeds, files download at multiples of megabytes per minute and I never have to turn the connection off. We also got VOIP as part of the package saving a bundle on monthly line rentals and, local and interstate calls. So you can imagine my glee when I got to actually put my connection through it’s paces. Hold on to your hat, here we go!
Fig 1: Broadband account speed test
Not bad huh? Actually I tried the test a couple of times with a top score of 12,968kbps. As you can imagine I was pretty chuffed.
Now have a look at my score compared to other countries.
Fig 2: Connection speeds by country
In terms of average speed Australia ranks a lack luster 27th globally, with the average Aussie punter achieving a little over 6,000kbps. But now lets look at it in relation to the top 8 performers. Here the averages range between 16,000kbs and 33,000kbps. Clearly we still have a way to go before we can be called competitive.
By the way, results can also be ordered by ISP in which I’m very proud to say that iiNet achieved third, just ahead of Telstra Bigpond.
Naturally being hosted under a .com.au domain the largest response by far was from Australia. I’m sure this adds to the accuracy of our own data, with a larger population size providing a more representative sample. You could then conclude that results for other countries may not be nearly as representative. For example, I was surprised by the results for the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. But that may be due purely to my own ill-advised expectations.
You may have guessed by now that I have no clear purpose to this article other then to present some interesting facts. It does make me wonder though. How are we ever going to compete in a global e-commerce market. What I would love more than anything is for the next Google, Apple or even Facebook to be born and raised right here in Oz. But with the lack of basic infrastructure and, investment in technology, science and education I don’t hold much hope.
