NZ-Australia broadband speed gap widens

Akamai reports New Zealand’s average broadband speed jumped 23 percent compared with last year. The latest quarterly State of the Internet report clocks the average NZ line speed at 8.7 Mbps. Last year’s average was 7.1 Mbps.

Despite the speed jump, New Zealand’s relative position to the rest of the world remains unchanged [from a year ago]. For average broadband speeds we are still ranked at number 42 in the world.

New Zealand keeps its comfortable lead over Australia. Our nearest neighbour saw average speeds rise 13 percent to 7.8 Mbps. That was enough to move Australia one place up the global table to 46.

Well ahead of Australia

Akamai has New Zealand ahead of Australia on most speed measures: number of users over 4 Mbps, 10 Mbps and 15 Mbps. We are also one place ahead of Australia on average peak connection speeds. However, our average peak connection speed puts us at only 45 in the world rankings.

What these numbers indicate is despite New Zealand’s considerable investment in fibre, the political fuss and regulatory intervention we have only kept pace with other nations. So far, rolling out a nationwide fibre broadband network appears to be more of a hygiene factor than a catalyst for propelling the nation forward.

By the same token, Australia’s broadband policy train wreck has seen that nation fall behind.