Rural Broadband no match for Urban Areas

Rural Broadband no match for Urban Areas

However RBI funded Rural upgrades are delivering the goods

TrueNet's quarterly Rural Broadband report shows a big mismatch between rural and urban areas. In November, Panelists with Rural ADSL took twice as long to load our group of Live Webpages compared to Urban ADSL Panelists.

The government's Rural Broadband Initiative is slowly reducing this difference by funding upgrades to rural copper services with minimum speed targets of 86% getting 5Mb/s or more.

See the November Monthly Report here

Summary of Performance Measures

The 9pm speed of services other than ADSL were typically slower this month, e.g. VDSL average down to 21 Mb/s from 23Mb/s last month, high speed cable and 100M fibre services also lower.

In contrast, 50Mb/s upload speeds increased during the month with Snap 50Mb/s service averaging 53Mb/s UP in November.

In our quarterly feature, we continue to watch the state of Rural Broadband. Panelists with Rural ADSL take about twice as long to load our group of Live Webpages compared to Urban ADSL Panelists. Sharp reductions in speed during the evening busy hours have a significant effect on rural broadband performance. However, ADSL funded by the governments RBI (Rural Broadband Initiative) perform much closer to urban speeds.

After several months of reporting, iiNet is no longer ranked last in our test of Australian Live Webpages.

Webpage Download time

Slow webpage downloads can be one of the most frustrating experiences when using the Internet.

TrueNet uses a selection of Live NZ and Australian internet Webpages to measure performance, downloading them the same way as a standard computer. The choice of pages was updated on the 1st of November, adding a new Australian located page and new New Zealand Webpage.

NZ Live Webpages

Comparing all technologies, Orcon 100Mb/s Fibre remains quickest overall, downloading the NZ Live Webpages in 1.8seconds. Rural ADSL is slowest, downloading in 12.2 seconds.

TrueNet now has sufficient Vodafone and Spark Panelists to include in the November Fibre results. Vodafone 100Mb/s(downloading in 2.3 seconds) lags behind all other fibre products except for Snap 10/30Mb/s (downloading in 2.4 seconds)

Competition is hotting up in the VDSL market with Vodafone back on top, closely followed by Orcon and Snap.

Slingshot, Flip, Bigpipe, and Orcon are evenly matched, and lead ADSL as a group, with iiNet taking the longest to load the live pages.

Australian Live Webpages

Comparing all technologies, Snap is best for 100Mb/s Fibre service, and is also best for 30Mb/s Fibre.

Vodafone again leads the VDSL providers, Flip the ADSL.

iiNet ADSL has gone from last place in October to 4th in November through the deterioration in performance of the other ADSL providers, Spark, Vodafone and Snap

Speed (File Download Performance)

For TrueNet's speed tests each panelist's probe regularly downloads a 1MB file from Auckland, Wellington, Dallas and Sydney.

For national tests the median of the best Auckland or Wellington download speed result is used from each test run. International tests represent the median hourly speed of each probe to Dallas & Sydney.

International File Download Speed

TrueNet has servers in Sydney and Dallas to measure performance from our international neighbours.

This test provides a comparison that can be used to understand the performance of each ISP when downloading a sample file from servers in similar locations. We ensure the file is not held in New Zealand (cached) so that the test is international in nature. The speed test results selected are taken at 9PM, in the evening busy period.

In Chart 3, Orcon 100Mb/s Fibre is fastest to Sydney ; last month Snap 100Mb/s Fibre was almost equal, but has dropped back again. Vodafone 100Mb/s Fibre, and 10/130Mb/s Cable are well below their advertised speed

NZ File Download Speed

Comparing performance by time-of-day is important as it shows the service degradation when everyone is using the internet during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm.

Fibre - Cable - VDSL Comparison

Fibre testing measures the best of Auckland and Wellington downloads. Fibre advertised speeds are limited by the supply from some LFC's that provide 100Mb/s wholesale, which can only ever reach about 95Mb/s retail. Some LFCs are now offering connections at 106Mb/s wholesale to overcome this limitation.

There are enough Panelists to include Spark and Vodafone in Fibre results this month. In Chart 5, Vodafone 100Mb/s Fibre lags well below its advertised speed achieving only 35Mb/s at 9PM.

Snap is ahead of Orcon this month in the 100Mb/s services. Vodafone's 130Mb/s cable service remains fastest overall, though the 9PM speed is similar to fibre.

Results for all three 30Mb/s Fibre providers are very similar though Spark's service shows a reduction in the evening busy period.

The number of fibre service product plans offered is increasing, making it difficult to have enough panelists in each plan to compare. Down stream speeds now include 30Mb/s, 50Mb/s, 100Mb/s and 200Mb/s. In Chart 6 below, the ISP Fibre speeds relative to the Advertised Service speed is shown, giving an indication of ISP performance across the different plans. This method enables more Panelist results to be included, hence Vodafone results include some 30Mb/s connections.

Orcon and Snap performance is quite close, as has been reported over many months. Spark and Vodafone are achieving somewhat less at the present time.

TrueNet has observed that as ISPs offer UFB Fibre services, there are problems at the start up of Fibre services that result in lower speed performance. These are subsequently sorted out, and we observe improving results. Vodafone appears to be a special case, with several panelists experiencing very slow ramp-up, such that results for 1MB, as well as our check files of 5MB and 7MB do not approach full speed.

DSL Performance by Time of Day (ToD)

VDSL & ADSL testing is also based on the best of Auckland & Wellington downloads, as described above. DSL speed is strongly related to the length of the copper line between the user's modem, and the cabinet or Exchange.

VDSL File Download Speed

Orcon and Vodafone had solid results this month, staying above 95% throughout the month. Spark and Slingshot results are noticeably impacted in the evening hours, with Slingshot's November performance (90%) down on last month (95%).

ADSL File Download Speed

Chart 8: Bigpipe and Flip achieved excellent results this month, along with four other ISPs achieving better than 95%. Slingshot and Vodafone dipped below the 95% mark in the evening. Interestingly, although Spark VDSL dips between 8pm and 9pm, the ADSL results are better, and have improved on last month (October - 93%, November - 96%).

Upload Speed Performance

Upload speed is important when sending files and content to the internet. Upload speed impacts the time taken to upload a photo or synchronise data with the cloud.

TrueNet's upload test sends a 1MB file to our server in Wellington, and records the results using a similar method to the download tests, but measured from our Wellington server only. We test Australian connections to Sydney.

By Technology

There are small changes in Fibre upload results this month. 50Mb/s Fibre speed average was up to around 44%. The 20Mb/s service averages dropped from above 20Mb/s, to just under. Fibre and Cable 10Mb/s services achieved very similar results, with VDSL lagging behind.

Upload Speed by ISP

An Upload speed comparison between Fibre and Cable providers is shown in Chart 10. Snap's 50Mb/s service increased beyond the advertised speed to average 53 Mb/s this month, and Orcon's average also increased to 44 Mb/s.

Amongst the 10Mb/s Upload services, the results are virtually identical.

Vodafone fibre upload missed the cut for sample size becasue they have a mix of 20 and 50Mb/s upload options for 100Mb/s download, which reduced the sample sizes.

Quarterly Feature - Rural Broadband Performance

The Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) is demonstrating it's value. RBI funded ADSL connections served by "Other" ISPs (Slingshot, Vodafone & Xnet) had fantastic results, equal to Urban ADSL connections. See Chart 12.

Pre-RBI Rural ADSL broadband generally lags well behind services in Urban areas. The Rural Broadband Iniatitive (RBI) is a Government project to upgrade this older rural equipment to match that of the urban network.

Our Rural Panelists are mainly on ADSL, with long copper lines, or more recently installed RBI (Rural Broadband Initiative) funded ADSL. We have a limited number of Wireless Panelists, but are keen to publish comparitive results as soon as there are enough probes on Wireless services.

Webpage Downloads

The total time to load the Australian and New Zealand live Webpages is shown in Chart 11. Note that Rural ADSL takes over twice as long as Urban ADSL to load this set of Webpages. Whereas, the RBI-funded ADSL performance is close to that of the Urban ADSL average.

Rural File Download Performance

The number of Rural Panelists is limited, but there are now sufficient Panelists for reporting individual ISPs. In Chart 12 below, Snap and Vodafone each have enough probes to report statistically accurate results. We group related brands together to enable us to report on Spark (Spark & Bigpipe) and CallPlus (Slinghot, Orcon & Flip) rural connections.

Rural ADSL (Pre-RBI) - solid lines

Chart 12 shows that Rural ADSL Panelists experience a significant speed reduction in the evening busy period. The CallPlusgroup is the best of the rural ADSL providers shown. Snap and Vodafone have very similar results in our first Rural ISP Comparison. The Spark group has the biggest variation between peak and off-peak speeds.

Rural RBI ADSL - Dashed lines

In Chart 12, ADSL funded by the Rural Rural Broadband Initiative, see "RBI Other" - Slingshot, Vodafone & Xnet, can be as good as Urban ADSL (Chart 8). Spark is the exception, but we understand an issue of DNS overloading on Spark was resolved last week, which should see this problem improve.

Glossary

Details on how we measure are available on our Technical Page.

Live Public Webpages - For November 2014 NZ: Blogspot, Grabone, iTicket, NZ Dating, Radio NZ, Real Estate, The Warehouse, Trademe Homepage, Wikipedia. Australia: Bureau of Meteorology, Days Bay Homestay, News.com, Nine News, SMH

Backhaul or Longhaul - the links that are used to connect over long distances, eg from say Christchurch or Hamilton to Auckland.

ADSL, VDSL, DSL - the standard broadband service provided over a telephone line from an exchange or a cabinet (FTTN), VDSL is a faster version than ADSL. They use similar technology and backhaul, so sometimes DSL is used when referring to both.

Capped Plans - the most common ADSL service, where you have a monthly plan having a GigaByte (GB) limit of usage each month before your speed is slowed or you must pay more.

Unlimited Plans - ADSL service where there is no monthly limit on the amount of data used. Specifications for this service include that it may be "Managed" and have "performance reductions applied during peak demand periods."

Cable - Cable is offered by Telstra & Optus in Australia, and is available in a limited number of cities. Vodafone offers cable in the Wellington and Christchurch areas.

Cabinet - In NZ there are two cabinet types, an Active Cabinet, which has electrnics inside, usually a DSLAM, and a Passive Cabinet, which is simply a flexible cable joint. They are common in suburbs as large steel cabinets with usually two doors for accessing the insides. Chorus is often having them painted with pictures to reduce graffiti.

DNS - Domain Name Server. As the Internet is based on IP addresses, a DNS service translates domain names into the corresponding IP addresses.

DSLAM - the exchange or cabinet based equipment that your modem is connected to, over the pair of copper wires that are exclusively allocated to your premises.

Ethernet - The wiring used to connect computers to a network, typically an Ethernet cable is coloured (often blue), with small square connectors at each end.

FTTN - Fibre To The Node is based on fibre-optic cables run to a cabinet serving a neighborhood. It uses existing coaxial or twisted-pair infrastructure to provide connections from the cabinet to the home. Approximately 50% of NZ homes are able to be served by FTTN

FTTH - Fibre To The Home (or Premises) are connected using a gigabit passive optical network (GPON). A fibre cable, known as the "drop fibre", goes from the premises to the street. The "drop fibre" cable joins a "local network" which links a number of premises to a splitter in the fibre distribution hub. In NZ this is known as UFB.

ISPs - Internet Service Providers. TrueNet has probes measuring almost 20 ISPs but only reports on those where there are 5 or more probes working during any particular month.

Latency - The time for a packet of data to be returned by a remote server to the probe when a "Ping" command is issued. TrueNet sets targets for maximum median latency that are known to be achievable. The roundtrip Latency between Auckland and Dunedin in fibre optic cables is roughly 15 msec.

LFC - Local Fibre Company. These companies are rolling out FTTH connections subsidised by the government, but must sell services through ISPs.

LLU - or Local Loop Unbundled lines are DSL lines where the ISP uses their own DSLAM in the exchange to deliver DSL services. The ISP then leases the copper line (Local Loop) between the exchange and their customer's premises.

Median - The Median is found for each probe and this is input to any analysis to calulate the average performance. This means that any result represents the “middle” performance measure applicable for that probe. Using median ensures that the result is more representative due to the often skewed nature of measurements by probe.

NBN Fibre (AUS) - "NBN co is a single entity rolling out fibre nationwide and then wholesaling it to ISP’s" from a good comparison here.

Speed - Throughput or the median peak connection speed achieved during our standard test downloading an image from our test servers. TrueNet normally reports speed as a comparison at low vs high demand times to show any capacity constraints evident in speed performance, often called the Time of Day analysis.

UFB Fibre (NZ) - Ultra Fast Broadband connections are the service offered by some ISPs over the Fibre to the Home (FTTH) network built by LFCs over government subsidised fibres. Services now being offered include 100Mbps, 50Mbps and 30Mbps, with 200Mbs expected in the near future.

Webpage Download - TrueNet maintains a Standard Test page which is used for measuring the time to download the entire page. This page is visible here, we use a copy located on our test servers for test downloads. The time to download excludes the time for a browser to generate the page on a screen, some are faster than others.

ENDS

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