RAW DATA: TrueNet September 2014 Broadband Report - Spark Best Fibre

(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.)

In August, new entrant Spark blitzed the TrueNet UFB fibre results with a sizzling best for International file download speeds to Sydney, along with the quickest times to download both New Zealand and Australian Live webpages.

Bigpipe, was easily the best performer for DSL File Download Speed, maintaining hourly peaktime speed to within 99% of the off-peak speed.

Our report on upload speed compares fibre performance of ISPs for the first time, with Snap in first place achieving better than 45Mb/s at all times.

Index

• Webpage Download Time
• International Download Speed
• NZ Download Speed
• Upload Speed
• Quarterly Feature - Rural Broadband Performance

Summary of Performance Measures

TrueNet is publishing our first international comparison of file download speeds this month.  ISPs have little control over the off-peak speed of each connection, but can control the variation in speed by, for example, providing more capacity.  For this reason we compare international performance as a percentage of NZ performance for all technologies and ISPs.  Vodafone & Slingshot are clear winners for DSL products, while first time reported Spark (100Mb/s), and Snap (30Mb/s) are best for Fibre.

(Click to zoom)

Webpage Download Time

Webpage download time can have a major impact on internet users when times are excessively long.  TrueNet measures webpage download performance using a selection of Live Public Webpages.

TrueNet regularly changes the choice of Live Public Webpages, and their size constantly changes. The Live Webpage tests measure download times for these pages which are downloaded in the same way as a standard computer would.

The time taken to download all webpages, measured in seconds, is shown in Chart 1 below.

NZ Live Webpages

Spark, which is new to Fibre reporting, takes the honours as quickest of the 100Mb fibre services, and Snap for 30Mb - (we need more 30Mb/s volunteers from Spark). All High Speed FIbre services loaded pages sooner than Vodafone's 130M cable.

Orcon & Vodafone were first equal for the quickest VDSL.

The off-shoot ISPs of Flip & Bigpipe  were fastest of the ADSL.  Australian ISP iiNet, as expected, took the longest to load pages from NZ.

Australian Live Webpages

Chart 2 shows Spark 100Mb/s fibre was also quickest for trans-tasman Live Webpage downloads.  

VDSL rankings are similar to NZ sites with Orcon & Vodafone equal first.

ADSL results show stable mates, Flip & Slingshot, with the best results along with Bigpipe (being reported for the first time in this category). However, iiNet performs worst again, despite being Australian based, with a download time of 50% more than most other NZ ISPs.

Speed (File Download Performance)

For TrueNet's speed tests each volunteer probe downloads a 1MB file from Auckland, Wellington, Dallas and Sydney - either hourly, or every 5 hours depending on the data made available by each volunteer.

For national tests, the best download speed result from Auckland, or Wellington is used from each test run, and the data points in Charts 5-7 below are the medians of these in Mb/s.

International File Download Speeds

Much of the internet content we access comes from the United States. TrueNet has servers in Sydney, and Dallas to measure performance to our international neighbours.

The speed achieved by Fibre and Cable services is shown in Chart 3.  Volunteers on the Fibre 50M/100M service got superior results to Sydney, with Spark the best in the test. High speed 130Mb/s Cable was faster than 30Mb/s Fibre, but well down on 100Mb/s fibre.

We note that all the higher speed services achieve similar results to Dallas, which implies that a combination of delay (latency), and international bandwidth limit the speed.

All tests use a single threaded download, rather than multi-threaded which, if used,  would improve performance.

The results for ADSL and VDSL services are in Chart 4. Only the best file download speed from either Auckland or Wellington is chosen.

Vodafone is the pick of both ADSL and VDSL providers, from Sydney and Dallas for ADSL.  Slingshot is not far behind, although quicker for Dallas VDSL.

Fibre - Cable - VDSL Comparison

Fibre testing measures the best of Auckland & Wellington downloads.

Comparing performance by time-of-day is important to show the amount of speed lost when everyone is using the internet during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm.  

This month we are pleased to add Spark to the High Speed fibre results, entering with an excellent performance for their 100Mb/s; we need more volunteers from Spark for the 30Mb/s service. (See Chart 5)

Snap and Orcon were neck and neck with their 50M/100M results, but running a distant second to Spark.

Vodafone Cable speeds dip severely during the evening, but still manage a respectable 90Mb/s.

Orcon Fibre 30M, as well as the average of all ISPs VDSL, slightly improved this month.

DSL Performance by Time of Day (ToD)

VDSL & ADSL testing also measures the best of Auckland & Wellington downloads.  It should be noted that DSL speed is strongly related to the length of the copper line between the user's modem, and the cabinet or Exchange.

VDSL File Download Speed

In Chart 6 Orcon & Vodafone were the most consistent amongst the VDSL providers this month.

Slingshot & Spark experienced a greater busy hour dip compared to last month.

ADSL File Download Speed

In Chart 7 Bigpipe at 99% achieved the most reliable results again this month, with Orcon and Vodafonemeasuring better than 95%.

Slingshot and Spark were somewhat more impacted at the evening busy period, with Slingshot below 85% at 8PM. Uncharacteristically, Flip results showed a significant dip at 8pm, suggesting growth is reaching a tipping point after their earlier excellent performance.

Upload Speed Performance

Upload speed is important when sending files and content to the internet.  Upload speed impacts the time taken to upload a photo, or synchronise data with the cloud.

TrueNet's upload test sends a 1MB file to our server in Wellington, and records the results using a similar method to the download tests, but timed from our Wellington server only.

The value of UFB fibre is strongly demonstrated in Chart 8 below, because of all the technologies, 50M fibre upload service is easily the fastest, averaging over 40Mbit/s over the month.  It is four times faster than other technologies, and 40 times faster than the most common ADSL service.

10M Fibre and Cable are about equal, followed by VDSL

The Time of Day performance of High Speed services - Fibre and 130Mb/s Cable - is shown in Chart 9. Over time we are seeing a performance spread between the 50Mb/s upload services, as well as Time of Day impacts. There is almost a 20% speed gap between the quickest Snap, and slowest Orcon.  Amongst the 10Mb/s upload services, which includes Vodafone 10M/130M cable, the  performance spread is under 10%, and very flat by Time of Day.

Quarterly Feature - Rural Broadband Performance

Truenet has shown in a recent article that Rural Broadband performance lags behind equivalent urban services, being both slower (to be expected), and more strongly affected by Time of Day variation. We intend to keep an eye on the performance in the rural sector, and will provide regular updates.

Rural performance by Time of Day, continues to be exceptionally poor.  As soon as we have sufficient volunteers by ISP we will compare those ISPs.

Rural Webpage Download Performance

Webpage Download  test results for the popular NZ and Australian sites are summarized below in Chart 10, comparing the average of all Urban ADSL users against those on RBI and Rural ADSL services.

Rural ADSL users fair the worst, taking about twice as long to load both Australian and NZ webpages. RBI users experience longer load times than Urban ADSL, but the difference is much smaller compared to Rural ADSL.

In Chart 11, given the lower speeds in rural areas, the reduction at peak usage time will severely impact rural internet users.  TrueNet needs more rural volunteers from Spark and Slingshot, so that we can compare rural results by ISP.