Australian Bureau of Statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics

At the end of December quarter 2007, there were 7.10 million subscribers to the Internet in Australia. This compromised 964,000 business and government subscribers and 6.14 million household subscribers.

The number of non dial-up subscribers recorded at the end of December 2007 was 5.21 million, compared with dial-up subscribers of 1.89 million.

Non dial-up subscribers increased by 33%, from over 3.91 million to over 5.21 million between
September 2006 and December 2007. Dial-up subscribers dropped by 31%, from 2.75 million to 1.89 million.

Non dial-up subscribers represented 73% of total Internet subscribers in Australia at the end of December 2007, compared with 59% at the end of September 2006.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) continued to be the dominant access technology used for non dial-up subscribers, with 3.81 million, or almost 73% of total non dial-up subscribers being connected using this means.

Wireless technology continues to increase to over 481,000 subscribers at the end of the December quarter, compared with 186,000 subscribers at the end of the September quarter 2006.

Satellite technology increased to over 58,000 subscribers at the end of the December quarter 2007. Data for this technology were previously not available separately because of confidentiality provisions.

Connections with download speeds of 1.5Mbps or greater increased to 2.51 million or 35% of subscribers in December 2007, compared to 1.13 million or 17% of subscribers at the end of September 2006. For December 2007 a breakdown of higher download speeds has been released for the first time.