back to article Groundhog Day! ACCC again calls for truth in broadband advertising

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has fired off its latest salvo in its decades-long argument with the telco industry about internet speed claims in Australia, telling them to advertise typical speeds rather than theoretical maxima. Ever since people complained the 56 Kbps modems of the 1990s didn't …

  1. Paul J Turner

    Why pick a period?

    The ACCC should take a tip from Microsoft and require ISP-supplied modems to be instrumented to the eyeballs to see what actual speeds users get when they use their modems.

    It could even aggregate the 'scores' and return a QOS figure to be used to adjust the ISP's billing downwards when they don't meet spec'.

    That would get their attention real quick!

    People who pick their own IT kit always get told their kit isn't supported anyway, so no loss to them.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge

    Sanctions?

    The wet lettuce and the flying goggles, again!?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Speed is a relative thing

    Not scheduled to get the NBN for 2 years, currently stuck on 2.5 mbps. (max)

    My heart bleeds...

  4. mathew42

    Unlimited data plans at risk

    Only a few (~5%) heavy downloaders on unlimited quota plans can create congestion very easily especially iwth most ISPs purchasing ~1Mbps per user.

    It will be interesting to see if ISPs remove unlimited quota plans or introduce acceptable use policies allowing them to cancel the contracts of the top 10% if they are deamed to be having negative impacts on the network.

  5. Ne body
    FAIL

    Local speed? Overseas speed? Routing speed?

    While it's obvious that some/many RSPs are under-provisioning backhaul, I'm not sure how an RSP will provide the ACCC speed guidance. There are just too many possible speeds to pick from. Even in-country, the speed of data transfer from any particular site depends on who the RSP or the RSP's backhaul supplier peers with. And as for overseas speeds...

    1. julian.smith

      Re: Local speed? Overseas speed? Routing speed?

      Let's start with the underprovisioning ISPs - I'm looking at you TPG and SkyMesh

      Corporate level fines as a multiple of their profit from fraud

  6. -tim
    FAIL

    Speed?

    One of our offices was moved to NBN's HFC network. The 12/1 plan at best delivered half what the old ADSL plan did and it only was close to 8 mb at about 4am. Others in the building had signed up for 100mb plans and also only were getting the same speeds as we were at the same times. Months latter, they still don't have what they are paying for. Luckily we could still sign up for a new ADSL service so we are now back to about about 21 mb.

    There is also a serious lack of features on the HFC network. For example I don't know of an ISP that can provide IPv6 and a static IPv4 address yet. Some of use need those features.

  7. kofeyh

    groundhog day?

    Right, the same people who had no issue championing over 120+ POI because a certain large retail/ wholesale outfit had a tantrum (and a couple fibre network owners, who then sold) the same people who had no issue with ISPs consolidating to actually survive post-NBN and the same people who had in principle no real issue will good old Uncle Malcolm electing a technology that has variable speeds over an unreliable medium at length.

    ACCC, ho-rah, what are they good for? Absolutely nothin'.

    How can you claim a speed when the technology of FTTN or even FTTC isn't a fixed speed service and isn't a guaranteed one; neither is HFC.

    The old NBN, the Fibre one? Seems to have worked out fine; this mongrel model that's flavour of the month, that would cost less, be faster to deploy and more suitable, is none of these things. Government I can partly excuse, they are just going to be lobbied. FTTH might have been a rolls royce, sure; but have you seen one? Well built and run for decades. Funny that.

    ACCC should know better. And haven't learned a damn thing. Let's just complain business that sell services over a network are the problem; shoot the messenger. That always works.

  8. julian.smith

    Australian Mediocrity

    There's a reason why GodZone is number 51 in the Akamai Report

    The locals are as dumb as a sack of rocks - they are used to being ripped off day in / day out

  9. Colin Tree

    gold plated guarantee

    I want to see minimum and daily average speeds and MTBF guarantees,

    or the ISPs pay compensation.

    Maybe a failover to a minimum service of telephone.

    This is an essential service.

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