ISP Broadband Rorts Exposed

Some Australian ISPs are shortchanging their subscribers, fudging Internet bandwidth promises and Internet speeds, which can be significantly less than those advertised, according to a new report.

Research firm Epitiro’s Australia Internet Performance Index 2008, which monitored ADSL and ADSL 2+ broadband services, checked the customer experience of leading national ISPs.

Epitiro’s analysis claims that Australians receive on average 65.5 percent of advertised package speeds when downloading data from national sources. ADSL2+ packages achieved an average 53.7 percent of advertised package speed; downloads from international servers are considerably worse (14.5 percent on average).

International slowcoach

Downloading Web pages from locations outside Australia is also said to be much slower than in most other countries that Epitiro monitors

Telstra topped Epitiro ratings. Optus slid right down the scale.

Here’s how it placed ISPs (with previous quarter rankings in brackets): 1 Telstra (1); 2 TPG (3); 3 iiNet (2); 4 Netspace (4); 5 AAPT (7); 6 Internode (8); 7 Westnet (6); 8 Optus (5).

“The report raises real concerns about both the actual levels of service to subscribers and Australia’s connectivity to the rest of the world.” says Mike Cranna, Epitiro Australia MD.

The full Index report can be downloaded from www.epitiro.com.