Streaming service Presto has hit out at the federal government’s handling of the NBN rollout plan, saying that Australian households are still facing inadequate broadband speeds compared with the rest of the world, and that we are missing out on new technologies as a result.
The statement comes as the service launches a variety of new services this week, including new phone and tablet apps, but the company have announced that they won’t be launching Ultra HD 4K streaming, as Aussie internet is not up to the task.
Per reports in News Corp, Richard Cole, a senior product manager at Presto, says that the 4K streaming would have worked if the NBN had rolled out as originally planned, but at this stage, is still not an option.
“At this stage, the state of the Australian internet is that there’s a very small number of customers who have a connection strong enough to receive 4K in anything like a consistent fashion,” he said.
As of this week, Presto will start offering content in HD, which will require a 5 Mpbs connection, something that will bring the service into line with competitors Stan and Netflix Australia, who already offer HD content.
Netflix Australia already offers some content in 4K, including some of its own productions like Chef’s Table, House Of Cards, Marco Polo and Bloodline, as well as the ’90s Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick that everyone’s clamouring to watch.
At present, it is expected that the NBN will be fully rolled out by 2020, however, the rollout is happening under the Coalition’s heavily criticised hybrid-copper/fibre to the node model rather than the fibre to the home model that was first planned.
via News Corp
