Actor Kevin Spacey from Netflix Original series House of Cards. Photo: Getty Images

Ever since Netflix landed in Australia in early 2015, the streaming provider has kept track of how fast its service runs on the major internet service providers in the country.

After all, the quality of its business is highly dependent on the pipes going into people’s homes.

And every month Netflix ranks the six ISPs. The latest Netflix ISP Speed Index, for December, shows Optus again winning the race with an average speed of 3.57Mbps. The telco has remarkably held on to top place for 16 consecutive surveys.

An Optus spokesperson said that the 16 consecutive wins “speaks volumes” on its network improvements to “provide the best content experience to our customers”.

Meanwhile its big rival Telstra hasn’t fared so well, coming in last among the six providers with an average speed of 2.31Mbps in December.

The biggest telco in the country has copped the wooden spoon in every update since the start of the rankings in April 2015. Curiously, Telstra’s speed has dropped in the last five surveys while the other five ISPs have all improved their offerings.

Netflix Speed Index for December 2016. (Source: supplied)

A Telstra spokesperson said that Netflix’s index is not “a valid comparison between IPSs” because of the different mix of broadband technologies under each provider and the large contrast in geographic coverage.

“Our extensive network area services some 3.9 million customers over [about] 2800 exchanges, well beyond the area and number of ADSL equipped exchanges served by the ISPs in the comparison,” said the spokesperson.

“Based on our own extensive network testing, Telstra is confident that, on a like-for-like comparison of technologies in use, our network performance and speeds are world standard.”

TPG (3.39Mps) clinched second place after overtaking iiNet in the latest survey. Exetel – the only provider that had wireless products measured — and a combined Dodo-iPrimus (both brands are owned by Vocus), came in at fourth and fifth respectively.

Telstra pointed out that the rankings only reflect video streaming performance, which is not a true indicator of overall speeds. Netflix also warns that its speed index is a measure of “prime time Netflix performance” and should not be taken as a comprehensive “measure of overall performance” that include other uses of the internet.

The Telstra spokesperson said: “Our aim is to provide a network that offers a reliable performance, and the majority of our customers continue to be able to watch uninterrupted video across a range of streaming services, including Netflix.”

Netflix Speed Index history from April 2015 to December 2016. (Source: supplied)

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