The National Broadband Network's (NBN) CEO has blamed 'gamers' for slow speeds in parts of the network, saying they're using up too much data.

But experts say this is just wrong.

Here's an article from December 2016 - about 18 months ago:

"Believe it or not, some of the biggest online games use very little data while you're playing compared to streaming HD video or even high-fidelity audio."

"Where streaming 4K video can use as much as 7 gigabytes (GB) per hour and high-quality audio streaming gets up to around 125 megabytes (MB) per hour, (but usually sits at around half that) certain online games use as little as 10MB per hour."

Who wrote that article? The NBN.

The article goes on to say that some games can use up to 1 gigabyte per hour for live gameplay, although this is at the very extreme end of the spectrum. Even then, the game is still using seven times less data than streaming 4K video.

Yesterday, NBN CEO Bill Morrow appeared before a parliamentary committee to discuss how the NBN was being rolled out in regional Australia. He said his company had seen a significant increase in data consumption on its fixed wireless network - this is a relatively small part of the national network set aside for premises that aren't connected to the fibre of copper network. It will use radio signals and transmission towers spread across the country to connect about 600,000 thousand premises.

How the NBN works ... and how not to get ripped off.

Who are 'extreme users?'

The CEO said the company was considering throttling back data consumption of "extreme users" during peak periods.

Stephen Jones, Labor's spokesperson for regional communications, asked Morrow to explain what an "extreme user" was.

Morrow replied: "It's gamers predominantly, on fixed wireless."

"While people are gaming it is a high bandwidth requirement that is a steady streaming process," he said.

"This is where you can do things, to where you can traffic shape - where you say, 'no, no, no, we can only offer you service when you're not impacting somebody else'."

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Jones then suggested Morrow had characterised gamers as a "problem" whose use of the network was somehow less legitimate than others.

He asked what evidence Morrow had the problem was gamers, and Morrow replied the NBN Co could not know for sure as it could not tell what the data was being use for, but "we've heard from the people that do have familiarity with it".

Jones replied: "With great respect to everything you've said over the last 15 minutes, you've been saying to us the problem here is gamers."

Morrow objected: "I never said that. Hold on. I never said that. I said there are super users out there consuming terabytes of data and the question is, 'should we actually groom those down?'. It's a consideration, so don't put words in my mouth."

Internet Australia, a member-based group that includes many of the top broadband experts in the country, tweeted today that gamers use "very little bandwidth".

Former CEO of Internet Australia Laurie Patton told Hack "it's not the gamers that are the problem it's the Netflix effect".

If it's not gamers ... who's using all the data?

The parliamentary committee heard today that high-definition video streaming was chewing through data on the fixed wireless network.

i.e. Netflix.

In fact, the NBN acknowledged this in March last year, when it released data showing the average household connected to the NBN was churning through 32 per cent more data compared to the previous year.

The NBN's executive general manager of product and pricing said the reason for this was launch of Netflix in Australia in March 2015.

The launch saw average usage grow by 22 per cent in the first month.

Private market research released in March last year predicts the number of people using subscription video on-demand services such as Netflix and Stan will grow by 170 per cent in the next five years, jumping from 2.6 million subscribers to 7 million.

But the vast number of households streaming Narcos and Black Mirror are less convenient scapegoats than those dastardly 'gamers', Laurie Patton said.

"They always have someone to blame for why the NBN doesn't deliver, they have every excuse except the one that really matters, which is the flawed technology," he said.

"In this case for some reason shooting from the hip [Bill Morrow] had a go at gamers and gamers are not the problem."