Chorus speed tests trail other fibre companies - TrueNet
Commerce Commission-accredited tester finds Chorus UFB connections in Auckland and Wellington achieve better than 90% of their advertised speed less than half of the time.
TrueNet - an independent broadband tester contracted to the Commerce Commission - says in its latest results Chorus-supplied 100Mb/s UFB fibre connections in Auckland and Wellington achieved better than 90% of the advertised speed only half the time. Rivals Enable and Ultrafast Fibre achive better results (see chart top right).
Chorus provides Fibre connections throughout New Zealand excluding regions where three other Local Fibre Companies (LFCs) have exclusive rights of supply. These being - Ultra Fast Fibre (UFF in Waikato, Manawatu, Bay of Plenty); Enable ( in Christchurch, Canterbury); and Northpower (in Northland).
ISP speed constraints
ISPs sell UFB plans by speed - currently either 100 or 30 Megabits per second (Mbit/s) but TrueNet's test results show that these speeds are not possible, the most common maximum download speeds are approximately 94 and 28 Mbit/s.
Speed tests
During October, TrueNet had sufficient fibre connected Volunteers to provide a comparison between three different LFCs. Northpower did not have sufficient volunteers for TrueNet to report their speed results, TrueNet principal John Butt says.
How many of TrueNet's 400 volunteers are on UFB fibre? (Each volunteer has a "probe"a a broadband modem kitted out to test traffic on their connection).
"We have a minimum of five properly reporting probes per company with a minimum of a couple of weeks' reporting. Total reporting probes is 42, we would like more," Mr Butt tells NBR ONLINE.
"Naturally we have a lot more Chorus probes [Chorus is responsible for around 70% of the UFB rollout], but after specially seeking probes in the other LFC areas we have only two Northpower probes. We have 128 or more tests per probe from each location, with most reporting 137. Most probes are on Snap or Orcon."
Mr Butt says it should be noted that ISPs are more likely to influence the performance of each volunteer's connection during busy times; so TrueNet compared the off-peak hours of midnight to 8am and selected the best speeds achieved at each time from either Auckland or Wellington. This is to ensure that the speed measurement more closely relates to the peak performance achievable with each LFC, he says.
See TrueNet's full results here.
NBR Staff
Mon, 11 Nov 2013
Mon, 11 Nov 2013
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Free News Alerts
Sign up to get the latest stories and insights delivered to your inbox – free, every day.
Chorus speed tests trail other fibre companies - TrueNet
33654