A recent report by the Commerce Commission of New Zealand has found that most of the biggest broadband internet providers deliver the slowest and most unreliable services.

High speed connections from Telecom, Vodafone and Slingshot have all been reported as delivering average or below average scores in terms of connection speeds and overall reliability for the March 08 quarter. Smaller internet service providers such as Compas and Snap out-performed the average scores of the bigger providers.

Telstraclear (who offer both DSL and Cable networks) trumped all competition in the three main centres with the highest scores, but were beaten in Hamilton and Dunedin - where they do not have their own network and resell Telecom’s DSL services. Orcon was the highest-scoring provider in these cities.

The report assessed variables such as time to connect, download and upload times, e-mail receivership times and packet loss levels.

A few months back I received an email response to an NZS.com newsletter article about the government’s plans to increase broadband connection speed funding over the next few years. He made a great point - while we are constantly assessing and evaluating internet speeds in the larger cities, the New Zealand media rarely pay any attention to the often abysmal speeds (or even existence of a high-speed service) in smaller towns and rural areas throughout the country. Will the big ISP’s ever pay serious attention to the internet needs of those off the beaten track in New Zealand (anywhere away from Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch?).

If you’re a rural internet user let us know what you think - how is your service?

Image from Flickr.