Have you ever asked yourself or your friend why the Australian internet is so bad? Well, you are at the perfect place to find the answer to such a question.
Although we think of the internet as a universal and global resource, the actual experience that you have trying to get online can be very different depending on where you are in the world. With that in mind, you might be wondering: Why is the Australian internet so bad?
Internet speeds in Australia are consistently ranked as some of the lowest in the developed world, outages are relatively common, and prices are incredibly high.
Read ahead to find out what causes the Australian internet to be so badly perceived.
Is Australian Internet Really That Bad?
You might have heard about issues with the Australian internet before, but rumors are not always to be believed. What is the actual state of the internet in Australia? Is it really as bad as many believe?
Unfortunately, the fixed broadband that is available in Australia is really quite slow for such a technologically and economically developed country. Currently, Australian broadband is ranked as the fourth lowest in the OECD and the 71st slowest out of all 181 countries ranked by speedtest.net.
The average download speed is estimated to be between 25 and 60Mbit/s, depending on the data source that you look at.
Although 99% of Australian adults have access to the internet (with 91% having a connection at home) There is very little fiber internet coverage in the country at all, and it is mainly clustered around the major cities.
Quite a large amount of the landmass of Australia is only actually covered by satellite internet rather than the national broadband network, although this is mostly in relatively uninhabited regions.
Australians also suffer from relatively frequent outages but, despite these issues, it is not cheap to get online.
The cost of broadband in Australia is extremely high, ranking around 4th in the world. For 100Mbps (the most commonly offered speed around the world) you will be paying around $64.95 on average for an unlimited plan, compared to $50 in the US and $43.96 in the UK.
7 Reasons Why Australian Internet Is So Bad
Reason 1: Australia Is Big
It might seem like a simple thing to point out, but Australia is a very large country. National broadband networks rely on a wired system that makes physical connections between individual homes and urban settlements and laying down these cables is much more expensive and challenging across large areas.
The official area of Australia is over 7.5 million square kilometers, making it the sixth largest country in the entire world. That is a lot of space to connect up with cables.
Reason 2: The Australian Population Is Spread Out
Australia’s large landmass is not the only reason why providing internet to its population is a challenge.
Australian citizens are clustered into large cities that are relatively far apart, which makes connecting a nationwide broadband network even more of a challenge.
The majority of central Australia is made up of miles of almost completely uninhabited desert that is costly and time-consuming to traverse, so linking up individual cities can be a real problem.
Reason 3: Slow Uptake
The size of the country and the spread of the population may be barriers that make connecting up an internet network a bit difficult, but there is actually a lot more to the story than basic geography.
Australia has historically been a few steps behind other economically developed countries when it comes to many technological advancements, including Cable TV.
Most households were still relying on DSL internet for a long time and the infrastructure required for cable internet was slow to be introduced and is still far behind most similar nations.
Reason 4: The National Broadband Initiative/NBN
Because Australia was quite late to the game when it came to modern broadband infrastructure, the country suffered from quite a bit of drama trying to get things in place.
The largest provider in the country, Telstra, owns most of the infrastructure and there has been a lot of back and forth with the government about how to introduce improvements.
The Australian government ended up deciding to build their own national network, which was originally called the National Broadband Initiative, later the NBN.
By the time it was ready to launch, Telstra was still in control, so it was seen as more cost-effective to use their old copper phone lines rather than installing a new, modern system.
Reason 5: A Compromise On Speed
Even when it came time to actually update things for Australia’s internet, the situation did not improve as much as most people would have liked.
Rather than laying down entirely new cables, NBN opted to continue using the copper networks for a hybridized version of the infrastructure. This meant only marginally faster speeds, but weak connections and frequent outages.
Reason 6: Internet Monopoly
Even with all of these issues, that doesn’t mean that Australians get a good deal for a slower and less reliable product.
The monopolization of the infrastructure by Tesla, and the costly issues with the implementation of NBN, have meant that prices have stayed incredibly high. An unlimited data plan is very expensive and even standard broadband speeds come at a premium compared to other countries.
Reason 7: Lack Of Fiber
In more recent years, most developed countries have seen nationwide fiber internet programs dramatically change the kinds of speeds that are available in the average household.
In Australia, however, many people are still stuck using an inferior network. The NBN has not been able to offer fiber internet to most people in the country, despite the government’s original plan to bring fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) coverage for 93% of Australia’s homes.
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Summary
So, why is the Australian internet so bad? Not only is it one of the most expensive countries in the world to pay for broadband, but the service itself is also one of the slowest and least reliables of any developed nation.
This is partly due to geographical challenges like the size and spread of the problem, but also a result of the slow uptake of important technologies, an outdated infrastructure, and the slow and complicated roll-out of a national broadband network.
References
https://www.oecd.org/digital/broadband/broadband-statistics/