The ‘Netflix effect’ grips Aussie networks

The advent of streaming video services, dubbed the ‘Netflix effect’ has shifted the traffic patterns of Australian broadband consumption to unprecedented level.. The CEO of the National Broadband Network, Bill Morrow confirmed that the introduction of competitive streaming video services was driving massive growth on the nascent network.

Speaking at the ASTRA conference in Sydney in September, Morrow said that since the launch of Netflix, the data consumption of an average NBN customer has surged from 78 gigabytes a month in March to 121GB in August. The swell in data consumption represents an overall traffic increase of 55 per cent in six months.

“We see video consumption driving the bulk, if not all, of the growth of what we have to run over the network,” Morrow said.

Industry analysts also suggest that since the advent of Netflix, streaming traffic has impacted on Telstra’s network accounting for an estimated 15 per cent of its total consumer traffic.

Morrow said that the NBN  would assist  in stemming the flow of traffic congestion and deliver 'over-the-top' video services using  a mix of technologies.

Morrow said that upgrades to fibre to the node would keep up with the demand, despite concerns over its reliance on copper phone line networks. Fibre to the node services are launching at the end of September.

"This cry for data, this cry for speed is not in practice what people are actually buying or using," he said.

"Let's be careful about using our own money to overbuild something when it is not yet needed." 

"We're looking at 50Mbps for most of the premises connected to this network. It has the potential to get up to 500Mbps even 1Gbps speeds on short copper distances,” he said.

Morrow added that the majority of FTTN customers would be less than 400 metres away from the nodes that determine their broadband speeds. He added that test customers were currently getting around 100Mbps in downloads.

"If you are beyond 700 metres, you will be down to 25 Mbps," he said.