Streaming companies such as Netflix and Stan have been asked by communications minister Paul Fletcher to consider reducing the amount of data required for streaming videos over the internet as the national broadband network plans for large swathes of the population working from home.

Fletcher convened a roundtable with the telecommunications operators on Monday as more and more Australian businesses send staff to work from home during the national response to the coronavirus pandemic.

At that roundtable, it is understood two particular concerns raised were the possibility of more people streaming video from Netflix, Stan, Disney+ and others, and the strains large-file gaming updates would put on the internet in Australia.

“NBN Co and other industry participants are expecting a change in traffic patterns, with higher traffic levels during the day and increased activity in the suburbs as compared to business districts. All of these factors are being taken into consideration with retail service providers in provisioning the network,” Fletcher said.

After the roundtable the telcos agreed to form a working group, led by NBN Co, to deal with issues around security, network maintenance and any other concerns arising as a result of Covid-19 and people working from home.

Guardian Australia can reveal that after the meeting Fletcher sent letters to video streaming companies and gaming companies asking what they could do to reduce the load on the network in response to specific concerns about gaming and video streaming.

A spokesman for Fletcher confirmed there had been “constructive discussions” between NBN Co, retailers and video and gaming companies about how to optimise broadband, including “temporarily dialling back” the very high bit rate for transferring data over the network.

“While ordinarily and not currently an issue, we note that even minor bit-rate adjustments on high volumes can contribute to lessening network load without any significant change in quality,” he said.

“Such temporary measures are already in place in Europe, and we welcome the cooperation of the streaming platforms and their willingness to do their part in maintaining optimal broadband for all Australians.”

Netflix would not comment on whether it would agree to the request.

It is understood the letter was not a formal direction to the companies, and Guardian Australia understands Netflix would comply if directed by the minister.

The company overnight agreed to reduce the bitrate for video streams across Europe and the United Kingdom for the next 30 days after discussions with EU commissioner Thierry Breton.

“Following the discussions between commissioner Thierry Breton and Reed Hastings – and given the extraordinary challenges raised by the coronavirus – Netflix has decided to begin reducing bit rates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days,” a spokeswoman told Guardian Australia.

Netflix expects a small number of customers to notice the drop in quality, particularly those on the higher 4K streaming plans, of which there would not be that many in Australia.

Guardian Australia sought comment from Stan but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

NBN Co also announced this week it would allow retail service providers to access up to 40% more capacity on NBN services for free for three months, which will alleviate some of the expected capacity issues on the network as a result of people working from home.

Telstra CEO Andy Penn told ABC’s 7.30 program this week that Australians should consider strategies to reduce congestion, such as downloading movies rather than streaming in order to reduce traffic in peak hour.

“We already use a lot of data at home, and the peak time tends to be around 9pm in the evening. One of the things that we’ve been talking about is when people are working and studying from home, hopefully they’ll be using most of that data during the day, not at the peak time,” he said.

“And a telecommunications network is a bit like a road: you build it for the busiest possible time, and that’s when your crunch point is.”