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Telstra vid downloads getting SLOWER says new Netflix speed test

Remind us again who owns half of Foxtel? Telstra? Really …

Netflix's latest ranking of Australian service providers again shows that Telstra is the nation's worst-performing network when it comes to downloading the streaming video company's content.

Netflix speed rating data for australia

Netflix speed rating for streaming video downloads in Australia, April-June 2015

In its May assessment of download speeds Netflix found Telstra managed an anaemic2.23 megabits per second. Australia's dominant telco managed just 2.09 megabits per second this time around, as the graph above shows.

The graph also shows that iiNet and TPG are now battling it out for the top spot. Optus held second position in Netflix's first survey at 3.27 megabits per second. It's now languishing in third spot as TPG and iiNet scrape past it by a few kilobits per second.

Don't get too excited about the change at the top of the charts, dear readers: iiNet's speed is just 3.36 megabits per second.

When Netflix first published its speed ratings for Australia, Telstra blamed the streaming company's methodology for its poor results. The Register pointed out that as part-owner of Foxtel, a pay TV outfit, Telstra has every incentive to steer its customers towards its asset rather than the interloper that is Netflix.

If that was Telstra's plan, it has backfired: Australians have signed up for 1.7 million new streaming video on demand services since December 2014, but Foxtel's Presto service is in third place. One ray of light for Foxtel and Telstra is that about 40 per cent of households that take up streaming video also have a Pay TV service.

No matter the speeds Netflix customers receive on any network, the most concerning thing in all this might be that Australia looks to be home to some very committed couch potatoes. ®

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