Australians on NBN Co's Fixed Wireless Plus plan have experienced further improvements to their broadband speeds following the completion of NBN Co's fixed wireless upgrade program, the ACCC's latest Measuring Broadband Australia report has found.
The average download speed on the Fixed Wireless Plus plan during the busy weekday hours of 7 to 11pm increased from 86 Mbps in September 2024 to 93.3 Mbps in December 2024, with the average upload speed in these hours increasing from 8.3 to 11.5 Mbps.
"Australians living in regional and remote areas served by NBN Co's fixed wireless network now have greater access to faster broadband after NBN Co's upgrades," ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.
The Fixed Wireless Plus wholesale plan is offered with a speed inclusion of 100/20 Mbps. While the average busy hour upload speed exceeded 10 Mbps for the first time in the program, it remains markedly below the wholesale plan speed of 20 Mbps.
NBN Co has also introduced higher-speed fixed wireless plans as part of their recent upgrades. The report found that the maximum download speed for most of these services monitored under the Measuring Broadband Australia program met or exceeded their wholesale plan speed, demonstrating the higher download speed capabilities of the upgraded network.
"Our latest report observed download speeds as high as 500 Mbps on the highest speed fixed wireless plan, compared to a year ago when the highest speeds were below 100 Mbps."
"As some retail service providers are yet to offer these very high-speed plans, households or businesses connected to the upgraded NBN fixed wireless network may need to consider changing providers if they are interested in these very high-speed plans," Ms Brakey said.
Fibre to the node connections continue to underperform
The proportion of underperforming services with a fibre to the node connection continued to remain higher than other fixed-line technologies.
Fibre to the node connections comprised 87 per cent of the underperforming NBN fixed-line connections in this quarter's report. Underperforming services very rarely, if ever, achieve at least 75 per cent of their plan download speed.
"We encourage consumers experiencing slow speeds or frequent outages on fibre to the node and fibre to the curb connections to contact their broadband provider," Ms Brakey said.
Performance of satellite services remains steady
The report again measured performance for satellite connections on both the Starlink and NBN Sky Muster networks after their introduction to the Measuring Broadband Australia program in the preceding report.
Performance for both networks remained consistent, with the average busy hour download speed for Starlink services at 162.2 Mbps in December 2024 compared to 165.5 Mbps in September 2024.
NBN Sky Muster services attained an average busy hour download speed of 64.9 per cent of plan speeds in December 2024, compared to 66.1 per cent in September 2024. The service is available with plan download speeds of 25, 50 and 100 Mbps, with the report's average result consistent with a busy hour download speed of 64.9 Mbps for households on the highest available plan speed.
Background
Data for Measuring Broadband Australia is provided by UK-based firm SamKnows using methodology based on speed testing programs delivered in the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand.
This is the first Measuring Broadband Australia report to measure performance for connections with NBN Co's new high-speed plans (Fixed Wireless Home Fast and Fixed Wireless Superfast plans). The report includes these plans in the aggregate results for NBN fixed wireless services alongside existing plans. The Fixed Wireless Home Fast and Fixed Wireless Superfast plans are respectively available in 90 and 80 per cent of NBN Co's fixed wireless footprint.
Performance on fixed wireless connections is often more variable than fixed-line connections due to various factors, including the distance and line of sight from the consumer's premises to the nearest fixed wireless tower and weather conditions
NBN services may exceed their maximum plan download speed due to overprovisioning. This is generally where NBN Co provides a slightly higher data rate than the wholesale plan download speed to accommodate for the portion of a connection's data rate lost in retrieving information that enables a download to occur. NBN Co does not currently overprovision the uplink for NBN fixed-line connections. NBN Co overprovisions the downlink for services on the new fixed wireless plans by 50 per cent of the wholesale plan speed. This allows fixed wireless services to reach download speeds notably higher than the plan speed in optimal network conditions.
To sign up to the ACCC's program, visit Measuring Broadband Australia
