Japan Offers 10Gbps Internet While Australians Weep



Since the NBN project was introduced to Australia, the country’s speed rankings, when compared to the rest of the world, have been woeful. Rubbing salt into the wounds, some of Japan’s telcos have just announced they’re offering 10Gbps monthly plans.

Japanese telco providers, Nippon Telegraph And Telephone (NTT East and NTT West), have released new plans offering speeds of 10Gbps internet for just $US55 ($83) per month for 23 wards in Tokyo, according to Tweak Town. Having even a single gigabit of speed would be an impressive feat for many Australians but as Tweak Town points out, it’s likely you’d need the right hardware to keep up with it.

Either way, it serves as a reminder how far the rest of globe is excelling with internet speeds while Australia catches up to where it was nearly a decade ago.

Back in 2017, NBN’s then-CEO Bill Morrow said Australians wouldn’t use 1Gbps plans even if they were offered free of charge.

“Even if we offered it for free, we see the evidence around the world that they wouldn’t use it anyway… we know there are things on the horizon that are going to increase the need for further demand,” Morrow said, as reported by the Courier Mail.

As of February 2020, Australia comes in at 64th on Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index with an average download speed of 42.20Mbps and upload speed of 19.07Mbps. To give a bit of perspective, the top 26 countries all have download speeds of 100Mbps or greater.