Join a smaller ISP like MaxNet, Actrix, Snap, WorldxChange or Compass if you want faster internet, says Epitiro, a UK company that set up in NZ last year to rate broadband speeds (and now for the Commerce Commission as well as the ISPs themselves. Read how Epitiro does it here).

Epitiro's latest Broadband Index for the March quarter, released by the Commerce Commission today, shows larger ISPs lagging their more nimble competitors in broadband performance.

"One simple reason is that the sheer size and growth of the top five ISPs will have contributed to network congestion, with many users competing for bandwidth at peak periods, in contrast to the many smaller ISPs who have less users," says IDC's Telecommunications Research Manager, Rosalie Nelson (IDC partnered with Epitiro on the report).

Three other results that caught my eye:
1. Of the five main centres, Hamilton had the best results
2. Of the top tier ISPs, Orcon rated highly, along with TelstraClear (but only in Christchurch in Wellington, where TelstraClear has its own fibre network, plus Auckland), with Telecom, Vodafone and Slingshot clocking below-average performance.
3. As a whole, New Zealand ISPs provide a much less consistent broadband product than Australia. Compared to our cousins across the Tasman, our internet speeds are erratic (as well as slower).

Smaller ISPs can definitely be more agile in terms of how they allocate bandwidth between their customers (although there is an absolute limit to their advantage, since they're all buying the same wholesale service from Telecom). And they also typically apply a lighter had to the kind of subscriber who lives their lives on the 'Torrents.

When I recently met with Ralph Brayham - the Ferrit.co.nz boss now pulling double time with his new extra role as head of Telecom Broadband - he admitted as much, saying he is deliberately not targetting the type of customer who downloads gobs of gigs through online gaming or gargantuan video downloads. Instead, he prefers to focus on Telecom's value-adds, such as extended-hours service, and enhanced yahoo!xtra features (such as the pro version of the freebie Flickr, which offers more online storage for your photos).

With the opening of competition, he says he's comfortable with Telecom holding 55% of the market. Faster and more consistent speed will be just as important as Yahoo frills in achieving that. But as Brayham points out, organisational separation means the division of Telecom that builds its network (Chorus) and the division that sell the bandwidth on that network (Telecom Wholesale) are servicing not just Xtra, but Vodafone, Orcon and other ISPs. In a surreal sign of the times, Chorus staff wore Vodafone T-shirts for a day as part of the promotion for the recent launch of Vodafone's Red network.