Small businesses are paying the price for poor internet connectivity

Darshana Gupta

13th May 2025

Small businesses across Sydney’s south-west are facing major challenges branching from internet connectivity issues. 

The latest data from NBN has found that the average Australian household supports over 20 connected devices and this is expected to rise to 44 devices by 2030.

Lag time, not internet speed, has been deemed the real culprit behind slow video calls and buffering streams. 

Also known as ‘latency’, lag time is measured in milliseconds and is the delay caused between users sending a request and the response time from the internet to carry it out. 

A lag time of under 10 milliseconds is optimal, while video call disruptions can be detected at 100 milliseconds. 

“Lag time is the invisible barrier that’s frustrating millions of Australian households every day,” said Philip Luo, CEO of Australian internet service provider Occom.

“The demand for fast, low-latency internet is only growing, as Australians increasingly embrace AI, smart homes, streaming and cloud gaming. Latency is starting to bother more and more people in everyday households,” he said.

The worst time for latency is between 7pm and 11pm at night, known as ‘internet rush hour’ when people get home from work. 

Mary Abas, a small salon owner in Austral, runs her business from home and stated that her unreliable internet and poor phone service have disrupted her business by driving customers away. 

Abas often finds her eftpos dropping out, leaving customers waiting as she tries to connect to the internet. 

Updating to a new modem or router could help with the issue, said Luo, or even turning the modem off for 20 to 30 seconds before restarting it. 

Relocating the router to get a better WiFi signal, managing network overload by upgrading to a higher-end router, reviewing your internet plan and scanning your devices to remove malware through an up-to-date antivirus software are other methods to minimise internet lag. 

“High-quality network services are becoming even more critical to meet the growing requirements for bandwidth, latency and stability and guarantee user experience,” said Mr Luo.

“True internet performance isn’t only about download speed. It also depends on factors like latency and packet loss,” he added.