Telstra still Australia’s slowest ISP for Netflix streaming

Netflix's latest Internet Service Provider (ISP) Speed Index has revealed that Telstra is still Australia's slowest carrier when it comes to a prime-time streaming experience. Telstra has now taken the lowest spot in the Index for four months in a row, recording an average speed of just 2.05Mbps for the month of July.

Netflix's latest Internet Service Provider (ISP) Speed Index update has revealed that Telstra is still Australia's slowest carrier when it comes to a prime-time streaming experience. Telstra has now taken the lowest spot in the Index for four months in a row, recording an average speed of just 2.05Mbps for the month of July.

When the Netflix Speed Index first started tracking Australian ISPs, Telstra Group Managing Director of Networks Mike Wright explained the results were not unusual for a national ADSL provider.

"The factors that influence the national average include the larger size of the Telstra network over a wider ADSL footprint and customer base which means that we serve a larger number of customers further away from exchanges," wrote Wright on Telstra's official blog. "This is due to the longer length of the copper lines which causes data speeds to reduce with distance."

A Telstra spokesperson confirmed these reasons are still a factor in the network's result. In addition, the spokesperson noted that Telstra hasn't seen a material change in "calls or complaints about video streaming or other online service performance".

"We have seen strong growth in total internet traffic across all of our broadband networks over the past few months," the spokesperson told CyberShack. "We have a comprehensive program of ongoing upgrades to the network across Australia. This includes upgrades to our core network, exchanges, local backhaul and content distribution solutions, and a program for rolling out the best new in-home devices we have like our Gateway Max for our customers."

"Our aim is to provide a network that offers a reliable performance and the majority of our customers continue to be able to watch uninterrupted video across a range of streaming services, including Netflix, Presto and Stan."

While Telstra's average streaming speed may seem low, it's not necessarily representative of the connection speeds all customers are getting. Scott, a Telstra Ultimate Cable subscriber in metropolitan Queensland, says he's still able to achieve speeds of 100Mbps during peak times.

"I've never had an issue with connection speeds," said Scott.