Netflix Everywhere

Netflix is Everywhere, Netflix is in Zambia.

Netflix has allowed its streaming service to be viewed across the world with a few exceptions, the only notable one being China. Their global footprint is 190 countries, 130 countries including Zambia being turned on today. We went to their website to see if a Zambian could register for the service, and we confirm there are no issues with the locale being Zambia, look in the address bar!

The registration page reveals the plans available for Zambia subscribers and guess what, the first month is free!

We think Netflix as a business model is great, allowing you to watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it. It brings much needed competition for the DSTV ‘monopoly’ that exists; except for sports unfortunately. In a country where unlimited internet packages are more the exception than the norm we decided to help you understand what is required to stream Netflix. There are four different data usage settings:

• Low (300MB per hour)
• Medium (SD: 700MB per hour)
• High (up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for Ultra HD)
• Auto (adjusts to deliver the best service based on your internet links performance)

We recommend that you go for High or Medium (at a push) anything less than that and you will take away from your viewing pleasure. A High data setting will cost you K75.00 per hour if you on the MTN 20 HomePack 🙂 Now that you have the volume of data required what about the speeds?

• 500kbs is the minimum supported speed
• 1.5Mbs is the recommended speed
• 3.0Mbs is recommended for SD quality
• 5.0Mbs is recommended for HD quality
• 25Mbs is recommended for Ultra HD quality

Take note that these speeds are over and above any other internet usage in your household.

What are your thoughts and does anyone have ‘the internet‘ to take on Netflix?