The State of the Internet in Australia
Australia's upload speeds are slow. It's on purpose.
I recently came across a Reddit post which posed a very good question about the internet in this country. You can read it here.
blackcyborg009
TDLR: A foreigner thinking of moving to Australia asks a question about the disparity between download and upload speeds. He goes on to compare Australia's internet speeds to other Asian countries and New Zealand.
The responses are a mixed. Some blame it on the Liberal Party, others on Rupert Murdoch and some believe it's a technological limitation.
Here's what I think, for what it's worth.
For years, upload speeds have been purposely stifled in Australia. I believe it's because Australia is a nation of pirates. We love to torrent movies, tv shows and music. It's at a point where it's deeply cultural. Australians pirate for good reason, too.
Some 20 years ago, digital goods in Australia (music in particular) was charged at a significant premium compared to what Americans paid. The product was identical, but Australians had to fork out up to 10x the prices the Americans did. No one could satisfactorily explain why, but suspect it was just greed by distributors of the content.
So, in true Australian larrikin spirit, piracy became the norm. Napster, Limewire, Kazaa and then finally BitTorrent. Movies, TV Shows, Games, Music, Proprietary Software. It became so rampant, the MPAA released a very famous advertisement - "You wouldn't steal a car." It aired in July 2004. Watch below.
The advertisement with the biggest Streisand effect.
The advertisement made piracy even more rampant by giving it exposure. Ironically, just recently in April 2025, the advertisement has been accused of using a pirated font.
So what does this have to do with upload speeds?
I believe if Australians were given access to 1000mbps+ upload speeds that were reasonably priced, that would be the end of all paid content streaming services. Power users would not only pirate content for themselves, but they'd host their own Netflix server and hand out login details to friends and family. Some might even profit off it. This can be trivially done with free and open source software (called Jellyfin). The streaming services know this. The internet service providers know this.
I was speaking to my internet service provider customer service representative about upgrading the speed on my plan. He upgraded it and at the end of the call he told me to "Enjoy the Linux ISOs".
Let's see what the market offers for high upload speeds in Australia as of May 2025.
The best residential plan you can get on the NBN is 1000/50. 1000mbps download with 50mbps upload. High upload speeds aren't even offered to residential customers. As for Business NBN plans, the highest upload speed you can get is 400mbps. On Superloop, this will set you back $130/month for the first six months, then $145/month thereafter. On AussieBroadband, it's $209/month. On TPG, it's $219/month.
Now let's take a look at what's on offer across the ditch in New Zealand as of May 2025.
The first thing I've noticed is the high tier residential plans (not business plans) give you 500mbps upload speed. Both SparkNZ and One.NZ offer this plan for $111NZD/month, which is about $100AUD. 2degrees offers it for $100NZD/month ($91AUD/month).
As you can see, there's a big difference in how residential internet consumers get treated in Australia. They don't want you anywhere near a high upload speed, and if you do happen to look at the Business plans, they're prohibitively expensive.
The NBN will gaslight you, saying Australia and NZ aren't comparable because of the geographic size and population difference between the two countries. The NBN gaslights the Australian public all the time. Here's an article below from 5 years ago doing just that.
Ry Crozier
The great Australian gaslight.
The NBN didn't like the results of where Australia's broadband speeds were ranked globally, so instead of admitting defeat and improving, they made up their own ranking system to justify their piss poor performance.
Australia is no where near 13th in the world. Australia is ranked 78 as of April 2025. According to the results 5 years ago from the article above, Australia was ranked 59th. This is laughable.
My point is, the Australian government can't hate you enough. We can't have nice things because of protection rackets.
End rant.
