We've finally got the Labs onto the NBN, courtesy of a relatively small but highly regarded service provider known as Aussie Broadband, which numerous people told us has paid NBN for the suitable amount of capacity, unlike some other ISPs.

Over the past three weeks we've been testing out our IoT devices to see how much difference it makes having an upload speed some 100 times faster than the crippled upload speed we had when NBN was in our neighbourhood but not directly connected to us. I'll get into the results of those tests in a moment. (Hint: it makes all the difference.)

This past week we've also been measuring the speed our new NBN connection directly, to see whether it's: a) as fast as advertised; or b) every bit as slow as many NBN customers have complained it is; or c) all of the above.

Interestingly enough, the answer is either a), b), or c), depending on the hours you keep.

Just how slow is the NBN? Supplied

Our tests involved using an ethernet cable to attach a fast (Intel Core i7) Windows PC directly to a gigabit ethernet port on a high-performance home router (a Synology RT2600ac) which was attached directly to our NBN modem, and then running an internet speed test every 20 minutes for a week.

The NBN connection, which is delivered via HFC in my area, is advertised as having 100 megabits per second bandwidth for downloads, and 40 Mbps bandwidth for uploads. Tests taken on weekdays were averaged out into a single set of results, and likewise tests taken on the weekend were averaged out into a single set.

If you're someone who mostly uses your NBN connection during the day, say for your work, then according to our tests on our NBN connection (and obviously your mileage would vary depending on where you live), you're going to enjoy pretty much what you paid for.


Up until 6pm on the average weekday, our NBN connection gave us between 85 per cent and 95 per cent of the nominal download speed, which we regard as a win for Aussie Broadband and the NBN.

An average day on our NBN connection. Things get a little funky when everyone tunes their TV to streaming services.

But if you're someone who works during the day, gets home around 6:30pm and settles into a night of Netflix and Stan viewing before going to bed at, say, 11pm, then your experience of the NBN is going to be very different. The download speed drops off sharply after 6pm, and between 9pm and 10pm it's as low as 50 per cent of the nominal speed, which we regard as a win for the critics of the NBN. It's certainly fast enough to be useful, but it's not the plan we signed up for.

Weekends are patchier. Download speeds are never quite as bad as on weekdays, but from 8am onwards (with the exception of 5pm to 6pm in our tests), they're never quite as good, either. Everything is above 60 per cent of the nominal download speed, so it's definitely usable, but it's not the advertised speed. Full results of our tests are on the website.

Upload speeds, which have been of more concern to us due to the how crucial they are for home IoT devices such as security cameras and doorbells, are a very different matter, however.

With only the occasional blip, they're solidly in the mid- to high-90s as a percentage of the nominal speed all week long, which is better than expected and indeed better than we hoped for. Uploads are awesome on the HFC part of the NBN.

On the weekend, things go a little crazy.

And the difference has been telling.


Our Ring Video Doorbell 2 is a prime example. It barely worked before the NBN came to town, and it didn't work at all after the NBN came to our neighbourhood. But it works properly now that we've got the NBN attached to the Labs.

The Ring Video Doorbell, as the name implies, is a doorbell with a Wi-Fi-connected video camera in it, that shows you, via an app on your phone, who's at the door. At best we used to get long delays before the video would appear on our phone, rendering the device fairly useless much of the time because visitors would typically have given up and moved on before the video appeared.

But now that we're on the NBN, the Ring doorbell is incredibly useful not just for its advertised purpose of letting us see who's at the door when we're not in the Labs (you can even press an intercom button on your phone and ask the courier to shove the package through the mail slot, for instance), but also for other purposes that never occurred to us before the NBN was connected.

I often call up the video feed from the Ring doorbell, even when there's nobody at the door, just to see what the weather is like back home when I'm travelling, or to see whether there are any free parking spots in the street outside the Labs.

Of course, there's a catch to all of this. We're only seeing great upload speeds because IoT devices haven't really taken off in this country, at least in part due to the fact that they have worked so poorly.

If the NBN means that IoT devices now work, and if that means IoT devices suddenly become popular, then it's possible upload speeds could suffer the same fate as download speeds: they'll get lumpy, and slow right down during peak usage periods. Security cameras might all start to stutter during the day, for instance, when everyone is at work and has their cameras activated.

The obvious solution will be to revert to the original plan for the NBN, which had fibre to the premise and vastly greater bandwidth for uploads.

The other solution is a little less obvious. Become a burglar.