Fixed-line NBN broadband services reached a new performance high in February 2021, the ACCC’s thirteenth quarterly Measuring Broadband Australia report reveals.
Retail service providers achieved between 86.8 and 99.1 percent of plan speeds across the major NBN fixed-line plans during the evening hours of 7pm to 11pm, the latest report shows.

The difference in download speeds between retail service providers narrowed slightly since December 2020. Average download speeds were 95.7 percent of plan speed during the evening hours, and 96.7 percent during all hours of the day, marginally higher than in the December 2020 report.

“These latest results suggest the NBN is performing well and retail service providers are largely delivering what consumers expect and have paid for,” ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.

Internet service provider Exetel’s download speeds reached 98.7 percent of plan speed during the busy evening hours, up 8.8 percentage points since the last report.

Exetel is a reseller that acquires NBN services from another provider, rather than buying directly from NBN. Exetel is now achieving results that are comparable with providers that directly connect to the NBN.

In February 2021, consumers on NBN fixed wireless connections experienced average download speeds of 81.2 percent of maximum plan speed across the day, declining to about 70.8 percent during the busy hours of 7-11pm. This represents a small improvement since December 2020.

The report also provides a view on the performance of very high speed NBN plans called Home Ultrafast. These are plans where the underlying wholesale product sold by NBN Co has a download speed range of 500-990 Mbps.

In February, consumers on Home Ultrafast NBN plans experienced average speeds between 608 and 745 Mbps. Between 7-11pm, performance fell by 23 percent on average compared with the day’s maximum.