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CANBERRA, June 21 (Xinhua)-- Australia's global rank for internet speeds has dropped from 30th in the world to 60th in the world since the coalition government came to power in 2013, while Australians are increasingly desperate for politicians to upgrade the nation's poor National Broadband Network (NBN), local media reported on Tuesday.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that figures from content delivery network provider Akamai showed the average peak internet connection speed of 30.1 megabits per second meant Australia was ranked 30th in the world at the end of September 2013, when the then-Abbott government came to power.
Since that time, however, Akamai said the connection speeds had only increased to an average peak speed of 39.3 megabits per second -- leaving Australia ranked 60 in the world below developing nations such as Thailand, Chile and Romania.
Akamai's reports are "highly regarded" by Australian experts such as Rod Tucker from the University of Melbourne, and the ABC report coincided with a poll which showed that 70 percent of Australians believe the government should deliver faster internet speeds even if it costs more money.
The 70 percent figure is diluted by satisfied coalition voters, though 85 percent of Labor voters were critical of the government's NBN, while 82 percent of Greens voters wanted to see improvement.
Rural Australians are particularly hard hit, with a University of Canberra well-being survey showing that around half of 13,000 people surveyed said their internet was "very poor" while only 37 percent said their internet connection was "OK" or "good."
"A lot of those are on the 'OK' end, they're not saying it's good, they're saying it's just enough for their needs," lead researcher Dr Jacki Schirmer told the ABC on Tuesday.
