Tried to Google this and searched around this and Whirlpool forums, but can't find an unambiguous answer as to what a Premium ISP/RSP is, and what defines one as such.
Have heard mentions of ABB and Superloop are premium RSPs, but why - is it consistent speeds during peak times, customer service?
Are there any others which are classified as 'premium'?
A RSP that balances their CVC purchases on your POI. The more CVC per customer your RSP purchases the better performance you will experience. A premium RSP should be upgrading their CVC purchases as required but that comes at a cost to us. They purchase too much, the bandwidth maybe wasted but ultimately costs us more. AB and SL are always mentioned because they are fully transparent with their CVC graphs.
Ahh… thanks for the explanation 4agte, that makes a lot of sense.
What 4agte said is absolutely correct from a technical level but impossible for any prospective subscriber to gauge. AFAIK, the only ISP that actually gives you access to POI/CVC load graphs is ABB (see here), so you can actually see how much bandwidth they're purchasing from NBNCo and how much their subscribers are using on each POI. Even then, until you sign up with a particular provider you won't know which POI you'll be on.
The amount of annual TIO complaints filed against them is a pretty good indicator of premium versus non-premium ISPs.
If they're not in the top 10 year after year, like the notorious three (Telstra, Optus and Vodafone), then you're generally with an ISP who does value customer satisfaction and support, is generally pleasant to deal with when requesting technical support, has locally-based call centres with reasonable wait times and gives well-above bare minimum service.
Productreview.com is also a fairly good arbiter of ISP trustworthiness; take a look at Exetel's reviews versus ABB for example.
Bare in mind, due to the absolute dog's breakfast clusterf**k that is the "multi-technology mix" infrastructure of our NBN network, if your particular Internet issue is caused by a dodgy copper line somewhere in your local loop then even the best ISPs in the country can't realistically do much about it, unless you're prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have it replaced with pure fibre.
If the issue is caused by a congested a POI/CVC then it's easy enough to churn to a provider that actually buys enough bandwidth to cope with demand.
Launtel and Superloop are the other ISPs that show you their CVC.
Aussie BB unofficial CVC with history going back 1 year for every POI.
Anyone can check the POI they are connected to here
Good point, but I believe Launtel and Superloop are much smaller providers that have a much smaller presence in most metro areas compared to the big dogs like Telstra, Optus, TPG, etc. It's not necessarily a given they'll be able to provide service at most addresses.
My point still stands though, apart from three smaller ISPs out of 143 across the country, there is no way for a prospective subscriber to know how much bandwidth a particular ISP has available for a particular POI/CVC.
At the end of the day, the quality of your Internet service in Australia all boils down to:
The provider is largely irrelevant and doesn't come into the equation unless your particular situation is such that you constantly need technical support, in which case it does pay to be with a premium ISP.
As I said, if you're constantly experiencing POI congestion during peak times, then you keep churning until you find a provider within your price range who gives a sh*t about bandwidth.
Otherwise, if you're on a brand-spanking new FTTH/B connection and you're not a data-hoarder who's backing up the Internet & Dark Web 24/7, you could be with Dodo and it wouldn't really make a difference.
Launtel and Superloop can provide an nbn service anywhere. Superloop are connected directly to all 121 nbn POI's. Launtel are ~60% connected directly to the nbn POI's and the remaining are through Vocus. Launtel said they plan to be connected directly to all nbn POI's sometime this year.
Now we wait for CVC to be scrapped and change to an AVC only model :-)
AFAIK, the only ISP that actually gives you access to POI/CVC load graphs is ABB
Looks like ABB show you the past 24 hours. Superloop show the past 168 hours (7 days).
Are there any others which are classified as 'premium'?
Future Broadband & Launtel.
Consistent international and local speeds and customer service do play a part.
the accc publishes data which lets you make up your own mind https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/internet-landline-services…