With the recent launch of Netflix in Australia the company is now including this country in its monthly ISP Speed Index.

The monthly update is published by the SVOD company as a way of pressuring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the best prime-time Netflix streaming experience.

In this first survey Australia and New Zealand joined were ranked 18th and 14th, respectively on the list of 29 countries that Netflix operate in. The company has stated performance for Australian ISPs was “impacted by consumer demand exceeding the forecasts Netflix provided”, and that they are “working closely with these ISPs and expect performance to improve in the coming months”.

For April, TPG topped the ranking in Australia with an average speed of 3.36 Megabits per second (Mbps). While Telstra came last on the list of surveyed companies with an average speed of 2.23 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Telstra has today responded to the negative results with a spokesperson stating - 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. 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.

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. This is due to the longer length of the copper lines which causes data speeds to reduce with distance.

We want our customers to receive great viewing experiences and each year we invest heavily in upgrading and maintaining our services. This includes upgrades to our core network, exchanges, local backhaul and content distribution solutions, and giving our customers the best new in-home devices like our Gateway Max.

Our focus is on managing our network traffic to ensure the best possible end to end experience for all our customers no matter what service they are using.

Meanwhile the cost of Australian version of Netflix will soon increase with the Federal Government confirming it will introduce announce new measures into the budget to ensure the company pays GST in this country.

Foxtel has welcomed the decision with Bruce Meagher, the companies Group Director of Corporate Affairs, stating, “The government’s move to enforce GST for the supply of digital content services is the right one. The digital marketplace is an increasingly competitive space and it’s critical to ensure that all players that do business in Australia do so on a level field, with no one player advantaged through tax loopholes.

“The introduction of this legislation will not only help to maintain consistency across the competitive landscape, but it will also ensure that Australia gets its due taxes from the companies that choose to do business here, which benefits all Australians.” 

Of course its worth remembering that any Australian that still has there billing address listed as in the US will not be charged the GST. It is believed some 600,000 Australians have accessed the US edition of Netflix.