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TELSTRACLEAR'S DSL SERVICE STARS AS TOP BROADBAND PERFORMER
Epitiro announced the results of New Zealand’s first definitive broadband performance analysis today. The service, used to judge broadband standards in the UK and other parts of the world, conducted tests in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, intensively measuring the performance of the DSL services of the five largest ISPs every fifteen minutes, 24 hours a day. The testing period extended from 20th July to 10th September, totalling over 15000 individual tests. Top Three rankings are as follows;| Overall Ranking | ISP |
| 1 | TelstraClear (TCL) |
| 2 | Slingshot |
| 3 | Orcon |
Epitiro's methodology, which measures all the factors which contribute to customer experience, provides detailed figures on the speed and reliability of Internet connections, how long it takes to connect to the Internet, downloads, uploads and the performance of both ping and DNS lookups.
Cranna said: "TelstraClear has a relatively new network which extends close to the customer and far into the global Internet. Consequently, without needing to use Telecom's older and more contended network, they are able to offer a better service.”
However, responsibility for the performance of the other ISPs could not be laid solely at their own feet. “The data shows that there are ongoing issues with Telecom’s network, which is dragging down the performance of those ISPs piggy-backing on it” Cranna said. Nevertheless, it’s not all Telecom’s fault either. “Our data shows some ISPs are not managing their traffic as efficiently as others, or purchasing enough international bandwidth to cope with peak demand. We see packet loss or response times go through the roof once demand increases. If this happens to several ISPs at the same time, we know the issue is industry-related. If it keeps happening to just one ISP, it’s likely to be their issue” Cranna said. There was also a note of caution for consumers. “While we have removed the effects of these variables from our tests, there are a lot of factors in the home that can dramatically affect DSL performance. Satellite decoders, fax/printers, cheap modems, faulty cabling, all can play a major part. We have tools that can assist ISPs in helping their customers identify and resolve some of these issues; it’s just getting the ISPs to see the value in these tools takes time.” Cranna also stated the data will provide useful insight into the success of local loop unbundling (LLU). “We’re pleased to have got our service up and running prior to the implementation of LLU. This means that as LLU rolls out, we will be able to compare unbundled exchanges with those which are not, in addition to measuring the before and after performance of broadband services as a whole.” Epitiro is hoping to expand its coverage as ISPs purchased the services. “We are hoping to work with the ISPs to establish more sites, and to therefore broaden our coverage” Cranna said. “We also have a tool we are about to release which performs the same tests but from any broadband user’s PC. Once we distribute that to NZ broadband users, NZ has the potential to become the first country to comprehensively map broadband performance nationwide. That would be cool.”ABOUT EPITIRO’S METHODOLOGY
Epitiro measures the five largest ISPs – Xtra, TCL, ihug, Orcon and Slingshot – by replicating the experience of the customer. “We basically locate the five PCs in a controlled environment, subscribe to whatever premium package is available in that location from each of the largest five ISPs, and then test them 24x7 every 15 minutes” Cranna said. “For the period in question, we have run over 15000 tests, measuring packet loss, ping times, traffic flow, connection and server response times and speeds. And as from next week, we are beginning testing of their management of peer-to-peer traffic.”
ABOUT EPITIRO
Epitiro offers a range of services to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) enabling them to benchmark customer performance across dial up, cable, broadband and wireless connections.
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Author's note by antoniosk, on 13-SEP-2007 20:53
Well it's a little cheeky but they didn't test PDQ - they tested the Business DSL service (since they ordered a service as a business).
So only available to TelstraClear on-net business customers. But it's amazing what fibre backhaul and short copper runs will do....