All the big ISPs register huge performance gains in the latest instalment of Epitiro’s quarterly tests on behalf of the Commerce Commission – but in part thanks to a change in methodology.

For the December quarter, Telecom, TelstraClear DSL, Vodafone, Orcon and Slingshot have boosted their broadband scores between 99% and 166% over the year-ago period, Epitiro says in a fourth quarter 2008 report for the commission, released today.

On one level, the dramatic gains were to be expected. In previous quarters, Epitiro has measured ADSL1 lines, which have a maximum download speed of around 7Mbit/s.

For the December quarter reported today, Epitiro switched to measuring ADSL2+ connections, which have a theoretical maximum speed of 24Mbit/s.

Epitiro managing director Mike Cranna concedes the change in methodology was always going to yield a massive increase in all ISP’s scores.

But, he says, that’s a true reflection of what’s happened in terms of broadband investment over the past 12 months, and the performance improvement that many customers are experiencing.

“Telecom has spent a shedload on infrastructure,” Mr Cranna says. Vodafone, Orcon and Actrix have also moved their own ADSL2+ gear into Telecom exchanges.

The net result is that 58% of phone exchanges are now equipped with ADSL2+ gear. Mr Cranna says with all tier-1 exchanges upgraded, that means more than 80% of the population is now covered by the faster flavour of DSL - so it was time to move Epitiro’s survey up a gear.

Citizens have also been carrying out their own upgrades. In July, 170,000 households had ADSL2+ modems (necessary, along with an unconstrained data plan, to feel the full ADSL2+ effect). By the Decemeber quarter, that number was 220,000.

Epitiro’s report, compiled in association with IDC, finds that “As a result of the migration to ADSL2+ measurement, the key metrics affecting broadband speed, browsing, email and gaming all show a 20% to 36% improvement in the December quarter. Retrieval of local or international web content (cached and non-cached HTTP) saw a 32% to 36% improvement in performance score, while synchronization speed performance rose 20%. The email round trip index rose by 29%.”

Testing times
ISP testing specialist Epitiro emulates an Internet user’s activity across eleven
sites. The sites are located in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

It measures twelve ISPs every 15 minutes on a 24-hour basis across the eleven sites.

The platform gathers a range of detailed statistics on seven parameters – synchronisation speed, cached and non-cached HTTP download speeds, ping, DNS, packet loss and email delivery times for independent analyses.