We previously reported that Netflix has agreed to reduce streaming quality to Europe and now it seems Australia may follow. The drastic measures come as the Corona Virus pandemic continues to rapidly escalate in Australia. One of the side effects of this is the volume of people working from home and the increased in broadband traffic.
We have already seen NBN Co boosting bandwidth by up to 40% and the pressure from increased traffic. The Guardian reports that the result of this is a request to the streaming companies to reduce traffic where possible.
Fletcher convened a roundtable with the telecommunications operators on Monday as more and more Australian businesses send staff to work from home during the national response to the coronavirus pandemic.
At that roundtable, it is understood two particular concerns raised were the possibility of more people streaming video from Netflix, Stan, Disney+ and others, and the strains large-file gaming updates would put on the internet in Australia.
The article continues on, stating that there is no comment from Netflix at this time as to whether the company will agree to the request, noting that it is just a request, not any kind of formal direction.
Further news continues to emerge regarding the bandwidth saving measures with YouTube being added to the list of providers who are actively reducing streaming quality to preserve the available bandwidth as the broadband utilisation continues to grow.
The request is only a temporary measure to ensure that, where possible, the services that users expect from their broadband provider are deliverable to an acceptable quality.
