RAW DATA: TrueNet - NZ broadband policy years ahead of Australia

(TrueNet is contracted to the Commerce Commission to monitor broadband performance. It uses a network of probes attached to 400 volunteers' internet connections to rate ISPs — Editor.)

Australian Webpages download faster in New Zealand
TrueNet tests show that New Zealand's investment in Fibre to the Node (FTTN) from 2007 to 2011 improved the performance of telephone line broadband, which is now significantly better than comparable Australian networks.

TrueNet has compared all of New Zealand's copper line probes (280+) with a small but relevant sample of 12 Australian probes doing exactly the same tests to public websites in each country.

New Zealand probes achieve better download times than Australian probes for popular Australian websites.

New Zealand probes are faster to download New Zealand websites.

(Click to zoom)

We checked the fairness of this by observing the actual performance of probes, and the comparison above reflects the probability that results from any New Zealand probe is likely to be much better than from one in Australia. A roll out of FTTN in Australia will certainly help improve this lagging performance over copperlines, though New Zealand continues to move forward with UFB and better broadband performance.

Background
A decision was made in 2006 that the then Telecom would "cabinetise" the nation, committing to "delivering broadband speeds of 10Mbps to 80% of New Zealanders by the end of 2011" – See more here

This technology change to FTTN involved installing the exchange-based broadband equipment in roadside cabinets in over 3600 locations, according to Chorus.

This activity placed New Zealand broadband services well ahead of Australia, where the debate and trials of FTTN are just starting.

New Zealand's investment in UFB is a further example of major differences in approach across the Tasman; the Australian fibre plan called NBN has just been cancelled in favour of FTTN starting in 2015, eight years after the start of FTTN in New Zealand. Australia's lack of political consensus and action have resulted in this potentially expanding gap between copper broadband performance in the two countries.

Cabinetisation or FTTN: This involves building a large roadside cabinet approximately 2m x 2m x 0.5m and installing exchange equipment inside, fed by a fibre cable from an exchange. The cabinet reduces the length of copper on any connection and so increases the broadband speed, often significantly. Typical copper lengths in NZ are now about 500m with a limit around 1km, although small numbers, mostly rural, remain higher. By comparison, in Australia, without FTTN, copper lengths in the cities are typically 2-4km.

New Zealand websites: Blogspot, GrabOne, NZ Dating, Radio NZ, Real Estate, The Warehouse, Trademe Homepage and Wikipedia

Australian Websites: Bureau of Meteorology, NEWS.com.au, 9News and SMH (Sydney Morning Herald)