While Australians are chewing through more data than ever, the latest Internet Activity report continues to steer well clear of the quagmire surrounding real-world NBN broadband speeds.

Australia's data downloads are growing 40 per cent year-on-year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as we gradually gain access to faster broadband and develop a taste for high-def streaming video services like Netflix.

Homes on the NBN chew through 23 per cent more data than the average home, which is an interesting stat but perhaps distorted by the fact that data-hungry power users have probably jumped to embrace the NBN while your average home isn't in such a rush.

Of course when you do eventually manage to connect to the NBN you soon discover that not all services are created equal and a so-called 100 Mbps plan doesn't always deliver on its promises. The ABS subtly highlights this in its figures by listing customers according to their "advertised download speeds", knowing full well that many people aren't getting all that they paid for.

The broadband blame game

In the early days people were concerned that the NBN was cutting corners on HFC network design, which could have a significant impact on real-world broadband speeds. You could argue the fact that NBN was prepared to junk the overburdened Optus HFC cable network, rather than shifting customers over and hoping for the best, is actually a good sign that network performance is a priority.

The NBN certainly has its share of teething problems but today the biggest threat to your NBN broadband performance isn't the NBN technology in your street or the network design in your suburb. It's the stinginess of your Retail Service Provider – an issue which didn't get much attention until we've started to see real-world NBN performance in the last few years. You'll notice the same telcos popping up again and again in speed complaints.

The problem is that cheapskate retail telcos don't buy enough wholesale bandwidth from the NBN to satisfy the needs of their customers during peak hour. Phrases like "up to 100 Mbps" don't mean much if you're forcing an entire suburb to share a broadband trickle.

Blaming the NBN for these problems is like blaming your suburb's water pipes for the fact that your stingy water retailer doesn't buy enough water to meet its customers' needs. When only a trickle comes from the tap you naturally assume the pipes are to blame, yet your next-door neighbour – using exactly the same pipes in your street – gets a steady flow because they're with a better retailer who actually buys enough wholesale water to satisfy peak demand.

Accountability gap

The trouble with the NBN is that there's a huge accountability gap between the network operator and the retailers – no-one can actually force the telcos to buy enough bandwidth from the NBN to offer a decent service. You can't expect consumers to shop around for a better deal when they assume the actual NBN is to blame, rather than their telco.

The ACCC consumer watchdog wants to address this by forcing telcos to reveal their real-world "typical busy period" speeds, but that's how we got stuck with weasel-word phrases like "up to 100 Mbps". Performance will vary from suburb to suburb depending on how much bandwidth your telco buys in the area, so general figures will be meaningless – every telco will say "between 10 and 100 Mbps" and we'll be back where we started.

Instead of forcing the telcos to admit that their 100 Mbps service doesn't always deliver 100 Mbps – which everyone knows – the ACCC should force them to actually fix the problem by buying enough bandwidth to offer a decent service. Upcoming changes to the NBN's CVC pricing model will help telcos cut costs, but will telcos improve their service or just pocket the savings? The cheapskate telcos will keep the money and leave you with crappy broadband.

The ACCC will never force telcos to offer a decent service, but instead of asking for meaningless "typical busy period" speeds it could demand the telcos offer a more tangible metric. Perhaps real-world speed tests overseen by an independent service or, better yet, figures such as bandwidth per customer in your area. Then you could compare apples with apples and clearly see which telcos were skimping to save money.

Of course such a radical idea will be shouted down, with the telcos claiming that it's too hard to tell people the truth about what they're actually getting.

Have you been burned by misleading "advertised download speeds"? What are you doing about it?

UPDATE: As luck would have it, the ACCC revealed it's plans the next day: ACCC launches NBN speed monitoring program