Throughout the year, people have been testing their connection speeds with ZDNet’s Broadband Speed Test. Since February, we asked people to enter their postcode and connection type, so that we could compare the various technologies. We lost some data in June, as ZDNet Australia was migrated to the international version of ZDNet. Still, up until last week (December 12), we had 602,831 records from Australian users. This was enough to discover some interesting facts about what’s happening when it gets to hooked-up internet Down Under.
Overall, it paints a positive picture. Speeds are increasing, not just through the adoption of new technologies (like fibre and 4G), but also because we’re getting more out of DSL and 3G.
As always, a word of caution on these figures: They are not a fully representative sample. They are the results of tests, often taken by people who want to see why their connection is slow, or how fast their new connection is. That’ll polarise the results a little. There’s also the geek factor: The results will be heavily skewed in favour of people who get a kick out of seeing how fast their internet connection is. That could push the averages up a little.
That said, these caveats apply equally to all the results, irrespective of which connection type or internet service provider (ISP) the user has selected. That makes the relativity of these comparisons totally bona fide.
Full Story: Speed Test: 16 fast connectivity facts | ZDNet.