Australia pipped on broadband Top 10

NBN still necessary, right?

The Federal Opposition has leapt on a global survey by analyst firm Strategy Analytics that put Australia 11th in household broadband penetration, questioning the need for a national network.

The survey of 58 countries put South Korea on top with 95 percent of homes with broadband followed by Singapore (88 percent), the Netherlands (85 percent), Denmark (82 percent) and Taiwan (81 percent).

Finland (69 percent), France (68 percent) and Britain (67 percent) filled out the places below Australia's. The industrialised nations of Japan and the US came in at 16 and 20, respectively.

Strategy Analytics spent most of its brief statement justifying its methodology of tracking household rather than per capita broadband penetration.

"Residential broadband is overwhelmingly consumed on a household basis - not individually," analyst Ben Piper said.

"Reporting broadband penetration on a per capita basis misses the mark, and can provide grossly misleading results."

Shadow Broadband Minister Senator Nick Minchin said survey "exposes the Rudd Government myth that Australians have poor access to broadband".

The Government is spending $43 billion on the national broadband network to provide faster internet to more Australians.

"Communications Minister Stephen Conroy loves portraying our country as a total broadband backwater but in terms of access and penetration of services Australia remains in an extremely credible position internationally," Senator Minchin said.