SYDNEY: Internet subscribers using iiNet’s ADSL exchange equipment on the Exhibition exchange are also having issues, with April 15 as the time it is expected to become less congested.
It’s understood the slowdowns – which can start as early as 4pm each day – are in large part due to the arrival and popularity of Netflix launching in Australia and iiNet not having enough “backhaul” cable capacity from a number of exchanges to its core network to cope with the demand.
They are hiding a lot and even publicly under-reporting the amount of Netflix traffic they are getting so people don’t connect the dots and realise Netflix has crippled the network
Most of the problems are not, however, connected with Telstra, which iiNet blamed for the issues last week.
“iiNet has end-to-end responsibility for their network, including managing the various network elements required to deliver reliable video streaming, one of which is traffic backhaul and interconnection,” Mr Wright said in a statement to Fairfax Media on Wednesday.
“It is the responsibility of each ISP to have sufficient backhaul capacity to deliver services to their customers.”
He added: “If customers of another ISP are experiencing congestion, insufficient backhaul could be one explanation or there may be other elements at play.”
iiNet customers worst hit include thousands in NSW, Victoria and Queensland using ADSL, and those using fibre offerings on the national broadband network and Opticom’s network.
While iiNet has not responded to repeated Fairfax Media requests for comment since Monday, its online fault status page lists dozens of notices concerning congestion on numerous ADSL exchanges and NBN “points of interconnect” – the NBN equivalent of ADSL exchanges – across Australia.
“They are hiding a lot and even publicly under-reporting the amount of Netflix traffic they are getting so people don’t connect the dots and realise Netflix has crippled the network,” a person familiar with Netflix’s impact on iiNet’s network, who didn’t want to be named, said.
iINet last week said Netflix consumed about 15 per cent of its overall traffic.
But the person familiar with their network said that while this was correct over a 24-hour period it was not typical for peak periods.
“That 15 per cent figure they reported earlier … that’s 15 per cent averaged over the course of a 24-hour period, when actual usage is heavily spiked between 6pm and 11pm AEST.”
The person said iiNet’s engineering team knew about the problems, but needed to get approval to purchase extra backhaul capacity from third-party providers – which often locks telcos into multi-year contracts – to cope with the Netflix demand.
Given TPG is soon set to acquire iiNet, the person suggested now wasn’t the best time to increase expenses but said no one had been actively talking about this at the company as being the reason upgrades hadn’t been done quicker.
