Yesterday streaming service Netflix released its first Netflix ISP Speed Index taking into account Australian and New Zealand providers, and Telstra has a thing or two to point out.
The ranking of ISPs saw TPG take the top spot with an average speed of 3.36 Megabits per second (Mbps) during peak periods, with Optus (3.27 Mbps), iiNet (3.24 Mbps) and Primus (3.03 Mbps) following behind. Telstra came last among the seven ISPs ranked, locking in an average speed of 2.23 Mbps.
Netflix said ‘speed’ was measured across all available devices in Mbps, “the average bitrate for Netflix content streamed by Netflix members per ISP. ”
In an official Telstra blog post, Group Managing Director of Networks Mike Wright made an effort to explain why the company had these results. The distance between customers and ADSL exchanges was cited as one of the key issues.
“The Telstra Netflix results are not unusual for a national ADSL provider where the lower averages are due to the extensive size of our ADSL footprint,” Mr Wright said.
“What it does show is that we are delivering a more than reasonable video experience during peak viewing times, providing over 2 Mbps on average across a vast and extensive network area, servicing some 3.9M customers over ~2800 exchanges.”
Mr Wright said the average speed was influenced by Telstra’s larger network, meaning the length of copper lines causes a reduction in speed.