Broadband

Mr Fletcher asked:

In respect of the report commissioned by the Government titled National Broadband Network Implementation Study, that claims that Australia’s broadband services are the third slowest among OECD countries (McKinsey & Co and KPMG, 6 May 2010, Exhibit 430, page 234), is this a fact; if so, what data exists to support this claim; if not, how does Australia rate internationally, and on what data is this based.

Mr Albanese responded:

According to McKinsey & Co and KPMG, the data supporting the claim that ‘Australia’s broadband services are the third slowest among OECD countries’ is based on the information provided to Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Broadband rankings 2008, which may be found at: www.itif.org/files/2008BBRankings.pdf

The ITIF data indicates that in 2008 Australia’s average advertised download speed was 1.7 Mbps, ranking Australia’s broadband services the third slowest out of the 30 countries surveyed.

By way of comparison, Japan recorded the fastest average advertised download speed of 63.6Mbps and Greece recorded the slowest average download speed of 1.0 Mbps.

The primary source for the ITIF speed ranking is a 2006 OECD report, Multiple Play: Pricing and Policy Trends.

More recent data published on 21 April 2010 suggests that in the fourth quarter 2009, Australia ranked 28 out of 33 OECD member countries in terms of actual average broadband speeds (www.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet ).