Has Video Streaming Spiked Our Internet Traffic By 40 Per Cent?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released their latest internet data figures and downloads way up compared to last year, or even 6 months ago. Should we blame Netflix? Their official arrival down-under in March likely made a big contribution, but of course they are not the only player in the streaming game.

For the three months ending on the 30th of June, we downloaded a collective 1.4 million Terabytes (or 1.4 Exabytes). Sure, that isn’t all from streaming TV but compared to the December figures, it’s up over 20%.

Perhaps more telling of streaming’s impact on our internet is that compared to this time last year, fixed line broadband users have used 40% more data.

Fixed line customers account for 97% of the use, though wireless broadband is steadily growing.
It’s up to 38,673 TB downloaded in the three months leading up to 30th of June, compared to 32,731 TBs the same time last year.

Reported on itnews, iiNet Chief technical officer Mark Dioguardi said Netflix accounted for 30% of their traffic by itself.

The more amazing statistic is that in the same three months leading up to the 30th of June, ‘other’ users, which is essentially dial-up, pulled down an amazing 49 TB. On the plus side, that is down from 65 TB as the same time last year.

Keeping those figures in mind, maybe I should feel ok labouring with 3Mbps ADSL, while the NBN Fiber sits unused on the side of my house because it’s not turned on at the other end yet…

So, what are you planning to watch tonight?

[ABS]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.