TrueNet note an impressive Slingshot improvement with their performance on copper connections in September compared with their August result.
(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.)
Congestion on the internet continues to be a major issue for many users, but not for all ISPs, Sparkcontinues to be free of congestion on all technologies while 2Degrees is good on copper and Slingshothave almost caught up.
Summary of Performance Measures
There are excellent changes in the market that suggest investment in performance improvements is in full swing.
However, around 9pm every night, some ISPs are still unable to match demand with supply, in some cases having the internet all but stop. These include:
Upload speed tests show evening congestion in Orcon and 2Degrees 50Mb/s services, plus Vodafone20Mb/s service. Other subtle signs of congestion exist in the Webpage download times, in particular Vodafone Cable, ADSL & VDSL.
Looking at International Speed (Australia and USA), MyRepublic had top speed during the busy hour with Orcon experiencing significant slow-down during the evening.
Table 1: Summary of Performance Measures
(Click to zoom)
Webpage Download Time
Responsive website browsing is valued by most Internet users, and conversely, slow-loading sites can be extremely frustrating.
TrueNet tests internet browsing by downloading a selection of Live Webpages from NZ, Australia, and the USA, measuring the time to fully download all files on the page. These pages are changed from time-to-time. This month there are 7 NZ pages, 4 Australian, and 4 USA pages.
The charts in this section have three points for each ISP entry showing the Min Hour (minimum time to download a webpage); the Max Hour (maximum time to download a webpage); and the Median of all hours. The best ISP has a low median and a short arrow.
NZ Live Webpages
We download 7 popular NZ websites from each connection, and compare the average time taken to download all websites. This test replicates daily activity for many people, and we group the websites into regions, NZ, Australia and USA so that readers can compare ISPs based on their own preferences.
Results for the NZ Webpages are shown in Chart 1.
A few ISPs have extended min-max differences (length of line), but many ISPs had good results. Vodafone cable, VDSL ,& ADSL are notable for the large min-max spread in the chart.
The relative performance of ISPs with Fibre and VDSL are similar, with consistent times during the day.
Chart 1: Live NZ Webpage Download Time - in seconds
Australian Live Webpages
We download 4 popular Australian websites from each connection and compare the average time taken to download all websites. This test replicates daily activity for many people, but to provide the ability for readers to compare between ISPs based on their own preferences, we group the websites into regions, NZ, Australia and USA.
MyRepublic has a greater min-max spread compared to other Fibre services, meaning their faster speeds (reported above) may not be as good in the busy hour due to congestion.
Slingshot and Flip still offer the best ADSL, but Vodafone was atypically the last in this group in September.
Chart 2: Live Australian Webpage Download Time - in seconds
US Live Webpages
We download 4 popular US websites from each connection and compare the average time taken to download all websites. This test replicates daily activity for many people, but to provide the ability for readers to compare between ISPs based on their own preferences, we group the websites into regions, NZ, Australia and USA.
Vodafone and Slingshot were again best of the ADSL & VDSL ISPs this month.
Chart 3: Live USA Webpage Download Time - in seconds
Speed (File Download Performance)
For TrueNet's speed tests each panelist's probe regularly downloads a 1MB or 2MB file from Auckland, Wellington, Dallas and Sydney. The faster the connection, the larger the file we need to download to ensure that the maximum speed is reached during our test. 100Mb/s connections easily reach full speed before 2MB of data is downloaded. Slower connections can test accurately with much smaller files. Our tests on Satellite, Wireless and ADSL can tolerate a file size of just 300k.
New Zealand tests take the best of each test run from Auckland or Wellington. International tests take the result from each test run from Dallas, or Sydney.
Our reported measure is the average hourly speed as a percentage of the best hourly speed in the month, this measures the ISP performance rather than the technology performance.
International File Download Speed
TrueNet tests download speeds from our servers in Dallas & Sydney to measure performance to our international neighbours.
We ensure the download file is not held in New Zealand (cached), so that the test truly measures international performance. The results are selected from the 8pm to 10pm evening busy period, when any congestion is most likely to be observed.
Speed test results for Fibre and Cable services to the US & Australia are shown in Chart 4.
MyRepublic 100Mb/s service had the best speed from Australia, as per August, with Orcon down to 4th in the 100Mb/s fibre comparison. Orcon has often led this test at 100Mb/s, but the slowdown during the evening hours has limited their results. This is also seen in the 30Mb/s services, where Orcon recorded under 20Mb/s.
2Degrees had marginally the best speed to the US for both fibre products.
Chart 4: Fibre, Cable File Download Speed - Dallas & Sydney
Copper connections (ADSL & VDSL) have a speed that is dependent on the distance between the home modem, and the exchange equipment which means that ISPs do not have any influence on the peak speed of each connection. To overcome this limitation, the Australia and USA speeds are referenced to the average NZ download speed of the respective ISPs. The speed reported is from the 8pm-10pm evening period.
Speeds from Australia are slightly down - none achieve above 80% of NZ average speed this month. Vodafone & Slingshot had the best results in VDSL, Spark and Vodafone in ADSL.
Vodafone and Slingshot were the fastest from the USA, especially for ADSL.
Chart 5: ADSL, VDSL File Download Speed - USA & Australia
NZ File Download Speed
Comparing performance by time-of-day is important as it shows the service degradation when everyone is using the internet during the evening hours of 8pm to 10pm. TrueNet uses the best of a pair of Auckland and Wellington download tests to calculate the median NZ results by hour over the month for each monitored connection. We take the average of all median results with each ISP for each hour.
The Time of Day performance of DSL, Cable and Fibre services are compared in Chart 6. The result is indexed to the hour with maximum speed for each technology.
Although the results around 9PM may look drastic, they are generally better than those in August. The period of contention is limited to fewer hours, and the lowest values for cable not as extreme as last month. For example, 50Mb/s cable was approx 55% of maximum speed at 8pm last month, but at 9PM this month was 70%.
The lower speed options of ADSL, VDSL and 30Mb/s Fibre is fairly consistent with only a modest dip in the evening period.
This month we include 200Mb/s Fibre services. This group includes 8 probes from a combination of 2Degrees, BigPipe and Spark.
Chart 6: Fibre, Cable, and Copper (DSL) Download Speed
Cable & Fibre providers are compared based on Advertised speed in Chart 7.
Changes from last month - Orcon, 2Degrees and MyRepublic fibre have deeper lows around 8pm - 9pm. Vodafone and Other ISPs fibre are well below the top four fibre suplliers.
The Vodafone Cable Time of Day curve has a sharp notch centered on 9pm, which is an improvement from August but remains very deep. The speed reduction occurs over fewer hours, and is not as deep as last month.
Chart 7: Fibre & Cable Performance as Percentage of Advertised Speed
DSL Performance by Time of Day (ToD)
The results are not quite as consistent as last month, though Slingshot had a markedly improved Time of Day result compared to recent months. To compare, Slingshot VDSL had a low of 69% in August. Bigpipe, Orcon and Vodafone had more variable results during the day/evening.
Chart 8: VDSL File Download Speed by Time of Day
ADSL ToD performance was more mixed this month. As with VDSL, Slingshot had much better results than in recent months, where they typically achieve 80-90%. Orcon, Flip, iiNet (Australia) and Vodafone were at or below 90% of advertised speed in the evening, representing a decrease in performance compared to last month.
Chart 9: ADSL File Download Speed by Time of Day
Upload Speed - Performance
Upload speed is important to users sending large amounts of data through the internet, or loading files to the Cloud. TrueNet's upload test sends a 1MB file to our Wellington server, and records the results using a similar method to the download tests, but measured from Wellington only.
By Technology
The average upload speed of all Probes based on technology and service speed are shown in Chart 10.
Fibre Upload generally achieves above advertised speed, with the exception of 50Mb/s Fibre (upload speed). The 50Mb/s average speed is limited in part by evening congestion (see chart 11).
Chart 10: Upload Performance by Technology
Upload Time of Day Performance - by ISP
Orcon's 50Mb/s 8-9pm results, and Vodafone's 20Mb/s speeds show congestion on upload - a new feature showing that Fibre could have bothway congestion issues in future as demand increases.
The order of ISP results is very similar to last month's.
Spark, MyRepublic, and Voyager make up the majority of the 50Mb/s Other category, while MyRepublic and Orcon are the majority of 20Mb/s "Other ISPs".
Chart 11: Fibre & Cable ToD Upload Speed by ISP
