The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today released Report 33 of the Measuring Broadband Australia program - the last edition of an eight-year initiative that began in 2017 - finding that NBN fixed-line household connections reached an average download speed of 99.4% of plan speed during busy evening hours in March 2026, up from 98.5% in the previous quarter.

The report, prepared by SamKnows (now part of Cisco) and based on data collected from 1 March to 31 March 2026, covers 1,156 Whitebox measurement devices installed across volunteer households. It spans five service categories: NBN fixed-line, NBN fixed wireless, NBN very high speed services, other superfast access networks, and satellite services including both NBN Sky Muster and Starlink.

Why this final report matters for the marketing community

For digital marketers and advertisers operating in Australia, broadband quality is not an abstraction. Connected TV, programmatic video, high-resolution creative formats, and real-time bidding all depend on reliable residential internet. Poor connectivity suppresses ad viewability, truncates video completions, and distorts attribution. As the ACCC has documented in enforcement actions covering digital platform services, the health of the digital advertising ecosystem is inseparable from the quality of the underlying infrastructure. This final report suggests that infrastructure baseline is now stable - and scrutiny will continue through other mechanisms, including the ACCC's record keeping rules covering NBN service quality.

The ACCC's 2026-27 regulatory priorities name telecommunications pricing complexity as an explicit area of concern, alongside dark patterns and misleading pricing in digital advertising. Consistent broadband delivery reduces one variable in that complex equation.

Key results for March 2026

According to the ACCC, NBN fixed-line services hit an average download performance of 100.0% of plan speed across all hours during the March 2026 measurement period. That figure dropped to 99.4% during busy hours - defined as 7 pm to 11 pm, Monday to Friday - which still represents a meaningful improvement from the prior report's 98.5% figure.

Among the nine major retail service providers (RSPs), Dodo and iPrimus led download performance across all hours at 102.8%, followed by TPG at 102.6% and Leaptel at 102.5%. Aussie Broadband recorded 95.7%, the lowest of the group, with a wider standard deviation of 21.2 percentage points suggesting greater variation across its subscriber base. The confidence interval for Aussie Broadband during all hours ran from 92.1% to 99.4%, a span that partly reflects the 131-unit panel size and underlying service heterogeneity.

Upload performance showed a narrower spread. According to the report, Leaptel and Exetel both achieved 92.2% and 92.1% of plan speed respectively during all hours, while TPG's upload came in lowest at 88.0%. The overall average upload performance for NBN fixed-line services was 90.7% during all hours - compared to 90.3% in the previous report - and 90.5% during busy hours versus 90.1% previously. Upload speeds are not overprovisioned by NBN Co, which structurally limits uplink results relative to download figures.

Why FTTP outperforms, and where FTTN still struggles

The technology split is one of the most practically significant findings in the report. Fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections recorded an average download performance of 101.2% of plan speed across all hours, compared to 99.7% for hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and 95.6% for fibre to the node (FTTN). During busy hours those figures were 100.8%, 99.2%, and 94.7% respectively.

The gap narrows slightly in busy hours but does not close. FTTN relies on copper wire for the final segment connecting a household to the node, and the maximum attainable speed on that copper segment is constrained by physical factors outside the RSP's direct control. Within the NBN50 plan tier, FTTN services recorded an average download speed approximately 10 percentage points lower than the equivalent FTTP or HFC services, a gap described as consistent with previous reports.

Upload performance diverges even more sharply by technology. FTTN services reached 82.3% of plan speed across all hours - nearly 11 points behind HFC and more than 10 points behind FTTP. The standard deviation for FTTN upload was 20.6 percentage points, the widest of the three main technologies, indicating the broadest range of outcomes.

Outage patterns also differ by technology. According to the report, 51.6% of FTTP services experienced no outages during the measurement period, compared to 46.9% for FTTN and just 32.6% for HFC. When outages did occur on FTTP, 43.6% lasted only 30 to 60 seconds. FTTN outages were more evenly distributed across duration categories, with 23.9% lasting 10 minutes or more - the highest proportion among the three fixed-line technologies.

The underperforming service problem shifts

According to the report, 5.6% of the 1,156 NBN services monitored during March 2026 were classified as underperforming - defined as services that achieved more than 75% of plan speed in fewer than 5% of download tests. That compares to 6.4% in the previous report, a modest improvement.

FTTN connections continue to carry the highest underperformance burden. The report found 10.7% of all FTTN services in the sample were underperforming. Within the NBN100 FTTN tier, that figure reached 17.4% - meaning roughly one in six NBN100 FTTN subscribers in the sample rarely if ever achieved their plan speed. At the NBN50 FTTN tier, 10.2% were underperforming.

However, a new dynamic is emerging. According to the report, there is now a greater incidence of underperforming services on FTTP and HFC connections than in previous reports - a direct consequence of NBN Co introducing higher speed plans for those technologies in September 2025. Among FTTP subscribers on the NBN500 tier, 4.2% were underperforming. At the FTTP NBN750 tier, 9.4% were underperforming. For HFC at the NBN500 tier, 6.8% fell into the underperforming category. The report attributes this to the challenge of sustaining higher throughput across the full end-to-end connection, including in-home equipment constraints.

The ACCC noted in the report that common causes include customer premises equipment with Ethernet ports physically limited to 100 Mbps, damaged Ethernet cables, and intermediate network devices that cannot support higher speeds.

Very high speed services: 79% above 900 Mbps

The NBN Home Ultrafast tier - a wholesale product sold by NBN Co at 1000/100 Mbps - was covered by 280 monitored services. According to the report, the average download speed across all hours was 869.5 Mbps, declining to 864.6 Mbps during busy hours. These figures are slightly below the previous report's range of 880 to 891 Mbps.

The technical explanation is structural. Unlike other NBN plans, NBN Co does not currently overprovision the download component of very high speed services. Because the Whitebox connects via gigabit Ethernet to the home gateway, the end-to-end link is limited to 1 Gbps. After deducting network and transport protocol overhead, the maximum observable speed is approximately 940 Mbps. According to the report, 79.0% of the 59,100 download speed tests performed on these services achieved at least 900 Mbps.

Average upload speeds for the Home Ultrafast tier came in at 90 Mbps across all hours and 89.8 Mbps during busy hours - both near the plan's 100 Mbps uplink limit, though still below it due to the absence of uplink overprovisioning.

The report also noted that NBN Co now offers an NBN Home Hyperfast tier with wholesale speeds of 2000/200 Mbps for FTTP and 2000/100 Mbps for HFC. These services do not appear in the report because the Whitebox devices cannot measure speeds at those levels.

Fixed wireless: strong near plan speed, upload remains a gap

NBN fixed wireless services covering 153 units across multiple plan tiers recorded an average download performance of 89.7% of plan speed during all hours, falling to 83.8% during busy hours. The previous report had recorded 90.1% and 85.4% respectively, indicating a slight decline at both measurement periods.

Upload performance for fixed wireless is notably weaker than for fixed-line technologies. The average upload reached 70.1% of plan speed during all hours, dropping to 63.7% during busy hours. These figures compare unfavourably to the previous report's 70.6% all-hours and 65.8% busy-hours results.

The report's breakdown by specific plan is instructive. The Fixed Wireless Plus plan - the largest cohort at 67 units - recorded an average download of 105.2 Mbps across all hours, falling to 99.4 Mbps during busy hours. Download speeds typically began declining during the evening, dipping 18 Mbps below the day's peak by 8 pm. Upload averaged 13.7 Mbps across all hours and 12.6 Mbps during busy hours.

The Fixed Wireless Home Fast plan, with a now-comparable panel of 56 units, averaged 176.6 Mbps download across all hours and 160.5 Mbps during busy hours. The evening drop was more pronounced - speeds fell 55 Mbps below the daily peak by 8 pm. Upload averaged 14.3 Mbps across all hours and 12.6 Mbps during busy hours.

According to the report, factors affecting fixed wireless performance include distance from the transmission tower, line-of-sight obstructions such as foliage, weather conditions, and cell congestion - which is most noticeable during busy hours when multiple households compete for finite cell capacity.

The report's satellite section places two fundamentally different technologies side by side. NBN Sky Muster relies on two geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) satellites positioned approximately 35,786 kilometres above the equator. Starlink uses a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation operating between 480 and 1,200 kilometres above the surface.

That altitude difference drives the most significant performance gap: latency. According to the report, Sky Muster averaged 658.3 milliseconds of latency across all hours and 662.7 ms during busy hours - figures that make real-time applications such as video conferencing or online gaming impractical. The high latency is a physical consequence of signal travel time across 35,786 km to the satellite, relay to a ground station, and return.

Starlink recorded average latency of 26.2 ms across all hours and 26.8 ms during busy hours - consistent with the previous report's 25.4 ms and 26.2 ms respectively. This brings Starlink into a range comparable to some fixed-line connections for latency-sensitive applications.

On raw download speed, Starlink (measured on the Residential Max plan across 48 units) averaged 230.4 Mbps across all hours and 199.1 Mbps during busy hours. Evening congestion affected Starlink noticeably: download speeds declined 126.9 Mbps below the daily peak by 8 pm, before recovering later at night. Upload averaged 47.5 Mbps across all hours and 45.5 Mbps during busy hours - relatively stable across the day.

Sky Muster download performance across 46 units averaged 89.0% of plan speeds across all hours, falling to 78.5% during busy hours. Upload, however, exceeded 100% of plan speed at 119.1% across all hours and 111.7% during busy hours - a result explained by NBN Co's use of burst upload speeds "up to 10 Mbps" on mid and high-tier Sky Muster plans, which plans frequently recorded, meaning 10 Mbps was used as the performance benchmark.

Outage patterns separated the two satellite technologies clearly. None of the 46 Sky Muster services experienced zero outages during the measurement period. In contrast, 35.3% of Starlink services had no outages. The average daily outage rate for Sky Muster was 0.66 per day. For Starlink, the reported average was 2.05 per day, though the report noted that a single unit recorded a disproportionate number of outages and significantly affected the aggregate. Excluding that unit, the Starlink daily outage rate would fall to 0.07.

Streaming benchmark: what each plan tier can handle

The report assessed the proportion of NBN services that could reliably stream video from Netflix simultaneously across multiple connections during busy hours. FHD streaming is benchmarked at 5 Mbps per stream; UHD at 15 Mbps per stream.

According to the report, 100% of NBN500 services could support one UHD stream, and 94.9% could support five concurrent UHD streams. At NBN100, 76% could support three concurrent UHD streams but the proportion dropped to 55.7% for four streams and just 17% for five. NBN50 could only support two UHD streams reliably for 98% of services; three concurrent UHD streams worked for 84.6% of NBN50 subscribers. NBN25 could support one UHD stream at 100%, but virtually none could support two.

For the RSP breakdown at the NBN500 tier, Dodo and iPrimus, Exetel, and Superloop each showed 100% of services supporting four concurrent UHD streams. Leaptel came in at 98% for each of the first four UHD categories. Telstra and Aussie Broadband showed 99% and 97% respectively for four concurrent UHD streams.

Eight years of data: the program's arc

The ACCC's early Measuring Broadband Australia reports, dating from 2018, measured NBN fixed-line download speeds during busy hours at between 80 and 85 per cent of plan speeds. The trajectory to near-100% reflects several structural changes, including the removal of capacity-based charging on all fixed-line and fixed wireless services - a change the ACCC's Commissioner Anna Brakey cited as a key factor.

"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," Commissioner Brakey said. "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."

On underperformance, the shift over the program's lifetime is also measurable. According to the ACCC, 13.9% of NBN fixed-line services were underperforming in May 2018. Today's final report records 5.6%.

"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," Ms Brakey said.

The ACCC added that monitoring of broadband performance will continue through data collected from service providers via record keeping rules, including the NBN service quality and network performance record keeping rule. The metrics from the Measuring Broadband Australia program are also available via a public dashboard on the ACCC's website. Underlying data for the report is available at www.data.gov.au.

The enforcement framing matters for the advertising community. The ACCC has applied consistent pressure on misleading advertising claims across sectors in 2026, and the regulator's stated intent to pursue speed and performance claims in telecommunications keeps broadband accountability within that same enforcement orbit.

State and territory breakdown

According to the report, download speeds during busy hours varied across Australian states and territories within a band of 96.4% to 100.2% of plan speed. Victoria was the highest-performing jurisdiction at 100.2% during busy hours for download, while the combined Northern Territory and South Australia grouping came in lowest at 96.4%.

On upload, the range ran from 88.3% for Tasmania to 91.2% for Victoria during busy hours. New South Wales recorded 99.4% download and 90.8% upload. Queensland reached 100.1% download and 90.5% upload. Western Australia came in at 98.4% download and 88.9% upload.

Timeline

  • 2017 - ACCC establishes the Measuring Broadband Australia program to provide independent information on real-world broadband performance
  • May 2018 - First report published; 13.9% of NBN fixed-line services classified as underperforming
  • 2018 - Early reports record average NBN fixed-line busy-hour download speeds of 80 to 85% of plan speed
  • September 2025 - NBN Co introduces higher speed plans for FTTP and HFC technologies, increasing the incidence of underperforming services on those connection types in subsequent reports
  • 1-31 March 2026 - Data collection period for Report 33, covering 1,156 Whitebox devices
  • 17 June 2026 - ACCC today publishes Report 33, the 33rd and final Measuring Broadband Australia report, recording 99.4% busy-hour download performance on NBN fixed-line services and announcing the program's conclusion
  • The ACCC concluded its Digital Platform Services Inquiry in March 2025 with 35 recommendations covering search, social media, app marketplaces, cloud and AI
  • The ACCC published its 2026-27 regulatory priorities in February 2026 naming telecommunications pricing complexity, dark patterns, and misleading advertising as enforcement focus areas
  • Hismile paid $138,600 in ACCC penalties in June 2026 for fake customer videos and misleading product claims - part of the regulator's sustained enforcement push in Australia's advertising market

Summary

Who - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), using data prepared by SamKnows (now part of Cisco), with input from volunteer households across Australia hosting Whitebox measurement devices.

What - The 33rd and final edition of the Measuring Broadband Australia program, covering download and upload speeds, outage frequency and duration, and streaming quality across NBN fixed-line, fixed wireless, very high speed, satellite (Sky Muster and Starlink), and other superfast access networks. The measurement period ran from 1 to 31 March 2026.

When - Announced today, 17 June 2026. Measurement data spans the full month of March 2026.

Where - Australia-wide, with state-level breakdowns for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT, the Northern Territory, and South Australia.

Why - The program was established in 2017 to give consumers independent, verifiable information about real-world broadband performance, to support purchasing decisions, and to encourage competition based on service quality. Its conclusion follows an improvement from 80-85% of plan speed in busy hours in early reports to near-100% today, and a reduction in underperforming services from 13.9% in May 2018 to 5.6% in March 2026. The ACCC states that enforcement of advertised speed claims will continue through other regulatory tools.