Mobile Internet connections up 40%
- — 31 March, 2010 13:33
The growth of mobile broadband connections is outpacing other Internet connections in Australia, increasing 40 per cent between June and December 2009. The results of the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) most recent Internet Activity Survey (IAS) shows that mobile Internet access via a data card, dongle or USB modem increased to 2.8 million connections between June and December 2009.
Though mobile Internet is on the rise, DSL broadband connections continue to be the major technology for broadband Internet access. DSL connections currently account for 51 per cent of all non dial-up connections; in June 2009, DSL accounted for 57 per cent of connections.
Dial-up Internet connections are on their way out, with nearly 90 per cent of Internet connections now broadband. Dial-up connections went from 1,286,000 connections at the end of 2008 to 927,000 by the end of 2009. At the same time, broadband connections including DSL and cable, went from 6,639,000 to 8,184,000. While Internet subscribers have gone up over the last year, the number of ISPs has dropped.
The phasing out of dial-up has seen a rise in internet speeds, with 62 per cent of Australians downloading at 1.5 megabits per second or greater. Australians are also downloading more, almost doubling their quarterly download quota from 2008.
The ABS will release its first data report on wireless Internet connections via mobile phones from December 2009, when it is satisfied with the accuracy of ISP data.
