12 Nov 2013

Some providers fall short on broadband speeds

7:18 am on 12 November 2013

Independent monitoring of three of the four ultra-fast broadband providers has found they are not delivering the internet speeds they promise.

The largest provider, Chorus, comes out worst in the first report on ultra-fast broadband services by TrueNet which found less than half the tests of the 100 megabytes per second service achieved better than 90% of the advertised speed.

On average, tests of both the 100 megabyte and 30 megabyte services found Chorus came close to the advertised speeds just over 60% of the time.

Waikato-based Ultra Fast Fibre was the best performer, achieving the advertised speeds more than 80% of the time while the Christchurch-based Enable managed about the advertised speeds about 80% of the time.

TrueNet chief executive John Butt says the actual speed achievable for the 100 megabyte service is more like 94 megabytes and the 30 megabyte service is closer to 27.

The manager of market development at Chorus, Mike Lott, says his company will use the survey to try to resolve any problems between it and broadband retailers which may be slowing the services.