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According to US think tank the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Australia’s broadband uptake looks first class. Its just when you start interpreting the figures, the reality hits you like a brick in the head.
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The ITIF has ranked broadband in 30 countries using a composite measure based on the household broadband penetration, the average speed weighted by percentage of subscribership (Mbps), and the lowest available price per Mbps.
Australia has come out well, ranked 12th overall and ahead of heavyweights USA, UK Germany.
However, as always there is a catch. Nowhere can be seen the actual cost per gigabyte per month as most countries don’t charge that way, and as well all know, broadband costs in Australia are not exactly competitive on a global scale.
But wait there is more disappointment. Although the ranking are done on the composite level, its speed in Mbps that most people are interested in and there you see that we have an average broadband speed of 1.7 Mbps. Compare that with South Korea with an average Net speed of 49.5 Mbps, almost 30 times faster or New Zealand, which although is lower on the composite rankings, has an average broadband speed of 2.5 Mbps. And even the Slovak Republic, which is third last on the list gets an average speed of 3.5 Mbps- twice that of Australia.
So it’s all nice to be ranked overall 12th in the world, but when your actual broadband speeds are some of the lowest in the world, who really cares?
