iiNet Internet Speed

I remember when the first time I came to Perth, Western Australia back in 1998 all you can get for Internet is 56k dial-up connection. Fast forward to eleven years later, most Internet service providers (ISPs) here offer ADSL2+ speed, which they claim can reach 24 Mbps (theoretically). This means the current speed is more than 428x as fast as the dial-up speed (or is it?). Some contributing aspects to this blazing speed are:

• The length of your phone line to the exchange;
• Internet traffic congestion;
• The quality of your line;
• Signal strength; and
  
• The speed of the websites you visit.

I signed up for iiNet (the so-called largest ISP in Western Australia) and they said that I'm eligible for ADSL2+ speed (my house is located 1.5 km from the exchange). And guess what? Last week I test my Internet speed using SpeedTest.Net and below is the result.

A "Lightning Fast" 2.46 Mbps Download Speed?

After the initial test, I retest everyday for about 5 days and the result stays the same. At first I thought maybe the line is congested, but all of my tests are done in the morning (around 6AM to 7AM) and today is Sunday. I know that 24 Mbps is only a theoretical speed, but it is said on their website that even standard ADSL speed is up to 8 Mbps. I also reckon that 2.46 Mbps of the advertised "up to 24 Mbps" is "a little too slow". Oh well, I guess "largest ISP in Western Australia" still has a lot of homework to do:P