The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has reported that broadband speeds and connectivity held up well during the month of May despite a big increase in the use of video conferencing and streaming services due to COVID-19.
The ACCC’s Critical Services Report examined the ability of the National Broadband Network’s (NBN’s) fixed-line broadband connections to support video-conferencing through Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, Zoom and GoToMeeting.
Chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims said that now the NBN roll-out had reached the majority of Australians, it was timely to look at the integral role broadband played in supporting Australians at this critical time.
“This report details how well NBN broadband services held up during May when Australians were increasingly dependent on video-calling for work, education and connecting with family and friends because of the pandemic,” Mr Sims said.
He said the report showed video conferencing applications hosted in Australia connected more quickly than those hosted overseas.
He said Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Skype used Australian-based servers and performed better due to lower latency, while GoToMeeting, Webex and Zoom recorded latency 10-times higher, or worse, due to their servers being located in Singapore, the Netherlands and United States, respectively.
Mr Sims explained that latency referred to the delay in receiving and responding to data and was dependent on the distance to servers where applications were hosted.
“Longer delays, or higher latency, are likely to lead to disjointed conversations during a video call,” he said.
“Consumers in Western Australia enjoyed the lowest latency using Skype due to Skype being hosted on local servers, while slower test results for Google Meet and Microsoft Teams in Western Australia are consistent with those servers being hosted on the East Coast.”
The ACCC report also found that streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube were typically downloading faster in May than during February.
“NBN Co’s decision at the outset of COVID-19 restrictions in March to offer retail service providers 40 per cent extra network capacity for no extra cost was a major factor in preserving the quality of broadband services for consumers,” Mr Sims said.
He said the ACCC will release further Critical Service Reports as well as the regular in-depth quarterly Measuring Broadband Australia Report, later in the year.
The ACCC’s 21-page broadband report can be accessed at this PS News link.
