Bandwidth Caps Keep Netflix away from New Zealand

   
After announcing expansion to Canada (here), Latin America (here) and the UK (here) - Bandwidth caps and copyright issues prevent Netflix from offering its streaming services in New Zealand.

Hamish Fletcher reports that Paul Brislen (pictured), CEO of Telecommunications User Association (TUANZ), said that Brent Ayrey, VP product innovation, Netflix told him that:

 ".. Netflix had no intention of launching in New Zealand. Despite the strong demand for online video and content, the quality of the local internet network and low data caps would be problematic for Netflix".

Mr. Brislen added that " .. [We heard that] next year the average Netflix customer in the US will need a data cap of one terabyte a month. I've got one of the bigger caps in New Zealand and I'm sitting at 60 gigabytes. I would need 1000 gigabytes of data. The whole crowd gasped at that point".

See for example - broadband plans from Telecom New Zealand (here). When the monthly cap is reached the subscriber can "Choose what happens when you exceed your data allowance: Continue at broadband speed for $2 [US$1.5] per extra GB or surf at reduced speed (64Kbps max) at no extra cost".

Note that for Canada, where bandwidth caps was an a major issue during the last months (here), Netflix offers a reduced quality option that "use 2/3 less data on average, with minimal impact to video quality. Now Canadians can watch 30 hours of streaming from Netflix in a month that will consume only 9 GBytes of data, well below most data caps "

See story at New Zealand Herald - "Netflix turned off by low data caps" - here.

QoS Deployments (30): Orcon [New Zealand] Uses Velocix [ALU] to Improve Video QoE

   

Alcatel Lucent announced that "it has been chosen by Orcon, the fastest growing service provider in New Zealand, to improve the delivery and experience of Internet-based video to its customers"

See "New Zealand’s Orcon selects Alcatel-Lucent’s Velocix platform to deliver high-quality online video" - here.

Orcon was the first NZ telco to unbundle the local loop and is the fastest growing telco in NZ

"Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its next-generation Velocix Digital Media Delivery Platform in key centres across New Zealand, allowing Orcon to offer broadcasters, content distributors and web-site owners a faster and more efficient connection to broadband users across multiple networks and devices including PCs, mobiles and TVs. The Velocix platform will enable Orcon to cost-effectively meet the fast-growing demand for online video, as well as to open up new revenue opportunities."

Charlie Boyd, Head of Wholesale at Orcon said - “As video-on-demand and streaming TV web sites grow in popularity, the amount of online video watched by broadband users is growing at an incredible rate .. By leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s Velocix infrastructure, we can offer content providers a local content delivery network (CDN) solution that meets their specific requirements"

See "Alcatel-Lucent Adds Bluecoat's Over-the-Top Caching to its Velocix CDN Solution" - here