ACCC Publishes Final Measuring Broadband Australia Report After Eight Years Of Monitoring

The ACCC has released the final edition of its long-running Measuring Broadband Australia program, showing that households on fixed-line NBN connections are now receiving an average of 99.4 per cent of their plan’s advertised download speed during peak evening hours.

The result represents a continued improvement from the March 2026 report, which recorded average fixed-line download speeds of 98.5 per cent of plan speeds during busy hours.

The program, which has been running since 2017, was established to give Australians independent and accurate information about broadband speed performance. Its conclusion marks the end of an eight-year monitoring effort that has tracked NBN performance from early rollout through to maturity.

A Significant Shift From Early Results

When the program began, average download speeds on NBN Co’s fixed-line network sat between 80 and 85 per cent of plan speeds during busy hours. In recent years, that figure has consistently measured close to 100 per cent.

The proportion of underperforming services on the NBN fixed-line network has also fallen. In May 2018, 13.9 per cent of NBN fixed-line services were classified as underperforming. In the final report, that figure has dropped to 5.6 per cent.

An underperforming service is defined as one that records a speed above 75 per cent of the plan speed in fewer than five per cent of download speed tests.

ACCC Commissioner, Anna Brakey, pointed to the role the program has played in driving those improvements.

“The Measuring Broadband Australia program has brought transparency and scrutiny to broadband performance, and it has helped to ensure that consumers receive the quality of service that they pay for,” Brakey noted.

Why The Program Is Ending

Brakey attributed the program’s conclusion to structural changes in how NBN wholesale products are sold, which have reduced the variation in performance between internet providers.

“The program’s conclusion comes after key changes to NBN Co’s wholesale products, such as the removal of capacity-based charging on all fixed-line and fixed wireless services,” she explained.

“Recent results from our broadband monitoring show that there is less differentiation between providers’ performance than when we published our first report in 2018 and considerable improvement in overall performance since the program’s inception.”

The removal of NBN Co’s Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) charging model – which previously required retailers to purchase bandwidth capacity and could create congestion if providers under-provisioned – has been a factor in levelling performance across providers.

Enforcement To Continue

While the formal monitoring program is ending, the ACCC has signalled it will continue to hold internet providers to account on the speeds they advertise.

“Internet providers have a responsibility to deliver a service that meets the speed and performance that they advertise, and the ACCC will continue to take strong enforcement action where we see evidence of misleading claims,” Brakey warned.

The ACCC will continue to monitor broadband performance using data collected from service providers through its record keeping rules, including the NBN service quality and network performance record keeping rule.

Fixed Wireless Performance

The final report also covered NBN Co’s fixed wireless network, which serves households outside the fixed-line network footprint.

The report measured average busy hour speeds of 160.5 Mbps for downloads and 12.6 Mbps for uploads on the NBN Fixed Wireless Home Fast plan.

The NBN Fixed Wireless Plus plan, described as the most popular fixed wireless plan in the Measuring Broadband Australia sample, can provide download speeds close to 100 Mbps during peak evening periods.

Program Methodology

The Measuring Broadband Australia program relied on thousands of volunteer households that received a hardware device called a Whitebox, manufactured and supplied by UK-based testing provider SamKnows. The device tested broadband performance when the connection was not in use, providing data independent of the household’s own internet activity.

The methodology was based on speed testing programs delivered in the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand.

Brakey acknowledged the role of the volunteers in making the program possible.

“The volunteers in this program allowed us to gather the necessary data to bring greater transparency and accountability to Australia’s broadband market,” she noted. “We sincerely thank all of the volunteers who contributed to Measuring Broadband Australia over many years.”

The report noted that NBN services may exceed their maximum plan download speed due to overprovisioning, where NBN Co provides a slightly higher data rate than the wholesale plan speed to accommodate for data lost in the retrieval process. NBN Co does not currently overprovision the uplink for fixed-line connections.

Busy hours are defined as the period between 7pm and 11pm on weekdays, when networks experience higher user activity that may affect service performance.

Last Updated on June 17, 2026 by Nick Ross