Your internet speeds are getting faster….slowly

The latest news on your internet speeds is one of those “do you want the good news or bad news” situations. The “Good News” is that new infrastructure that has been put in place has made the Australian internet speed standing raise six spots in the worldwide rankings. The “Bad News” is that we are still ranked 48^th in the world behind Hong Kong, Indonesia, and South Korea.

Singapore is our regions most improved with speeds three times faster than Australia’s top speed. This news isn’t going to fair well for the current government as the NBN and Australia’s internet as a whole has been a hot-button debate item since, well, since the internet was introduced in Australia.

To put our speeds into perspective, the average speed of Australian Internet means that you should be able to stream that funny Lee Lin Chin YouTube video SAS posted this morning in your home.  However, if you tried to watch an HD NetFlix video while someone else watched that YouTube video you watched earlier than you would probably both suffer the dreaded “buffering” symbol.

While both political parties have promised to improve the speeds to our web devices neither, have been able to make any detailed commitments that would mean a huge difference. While the Turnbull government has shied away from the net issue, Labor has said that they will install fibre connections to more than two million homes if elected. However, this would leave people with pre-existing arrangements to the old copper systems out in the cold.

Laurie Patton, the chief executive for Internet Australia, has stated that there should be a bipartisan agreement to review your internet connectivity and the results of the latest ranking. Patton told News.com.au “New Zealand outperforms us and Singapore, arguably our biggest regional competitor already delivers broadband speeds faster than ours.” If Australia is to compete in the digital age, this will need to improve no matter who wins the election this Saturday.

With so many services like television and radio migrating online and even the July 1 requirement for people to register online to receive Medicare benefits, it is more imperative than ever that Australia’s internet speed needs to be addressed by the government. More Australians would probably complain online, but they can’t afford the data usage or don’t want to interrupt that hilarious YouTube video.

How is the internet at your place? When is the internet fast enough? Do struggle to have enough data and speed to do things online?