Internet Usage

Overview of Internet Usage

Australia is one of the mature internet markets in the world. It is ranks among the top countries in the world in terms of Internet penetration and usage. In 2008 alone, 79.4% of Australians used the internet.
Internet Users, 2008

Country	% of population	Number (millions)
New Zealand	80.5	3.4
Australia	79.4	16.4
Japan	73.8	94.0
United States (2)	71.4	215.1
Korea	70.7	34.8
Hong Kong SAR	69.5	4.9
Taiwan	67.2	15.4
United Kingdom (3)	66.4	40.4
Germany (3)	64.6	53.2
Malaysia	59.0	14.9
Singapore	58.6	2.7
France (3)	54.7	34.9
Thailand	20.5	13.4
China (4)	19.0	253.0
Philippines	15.1	14.0
Indonesia	10.5	25.0
India	5.2	60.0

Source: OECD Broadband Statistics

In a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in June 2008, the number of broadband users has risen since 2007.



Australians use the internet for various purposes like internet banking, surfing for information and communication.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, at the end of June quarter 2008, there were 7.23 million subscribers to the internet in Australia. This comprised 1.02 million business and government subscribers and 6.21 million household subscribers.



Connections with download speeds of 1.5Mbps or greater increased to 3.10 million or 43% of all subscribers, compared to 2.47 million or 36% of subscribers at the end of December 2007.

Household Internet Usage

The influence of the Internet has spread considerably throughout Australian households over in the last three years. In February 1998, the first quarter of the survey, roughly one in every eight households had home Internet access compared to one in every three by November 2000. Before the end of the year 2001 it is expected that every second household in Australia will have home Internet access.




Internet Service Providers in Australia

The different Internet service providers in Australia are:

• Bigpond - Australia's largest Internet Service Provider which has won numerous awards, including Best test Broadband Provider in the 2004 Smart House Award.
• Optus - a leading ISP and integrated communications company which provides a broad range of services including Optus Broadband Internet and satellite services, telephony products, mobile, business network services and subscription television.
• Internode - leading services company who is changing the face of telecommunications in Australia through the use of innovative, cost effective and easy to use Data and Voice service.
• 3 mobile - has a choice of mobile Broadband services for surfers on the move. 'Take the internet with you".
• People Telecom - provides state of the art customer and account management services for business and residential customers in Australia.
• Dodo - we needed to stay low for a while whilst we became the very best Internet Service Provider (ISP).
• Virgin - With Virgin Broadband, expect the value and service the Virgin family is famous for. Yee-ha!
• Simpliciti - provides a full range of the latest technology and telecommunication services at the most affordable prices. By keeping it simple, we're better value, fairer and more user-friendly.
• Netspace - has evolved in tune with the evolution of internet technology; Netspace has always been at the crest of the ever-growing technology wave.

Many Australians have been complaining that even though their internet providers have said they have given them unlimited broad band downloading, this is actually not the case. In actual fact, the internet service providers are placing caps on how much a person can download; Once the limit has been reached the person's dial up speed slows down. There are many different arguements of why there are limits in the first place, while other countries such as Japan and South Korea are able to manage with unlimited downloading. Some have speculated that it's the immense size of Australia that prevents the internet companies from being able to manage the cables effectively, others have said its due to Australia's large population. However, one main arguement seems to take center stage throughout the whole debate; The service providers feel that unlimited downloading will prevent them from making acceptable profits.

Internet and Broadband Connection

• Subscriber Numbers
  
  
  
  According to the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) the movements in the subscriber numbers were as follows:
  - 15.3% increase to 2.9 million ADSL subsrcibers
  - 18.8% increase to 796,000 Cable subscribers
  - 32.3% decline to 915,00 Narrowband subscribers
  - 40.3% decline to 19,000 Satellite subscribers
  
  
  
• Revenue
  
  
  
  
  The ACMA also released the changes in average revenue per subscriber per technology:
  - 18% increase to $502 per ADSL subscriber
  - 50% increase to $1,141 per Satellite subscriber
  - 0.1% decline to $535 per Cable subscriber
  - 14% deline to $169 per Narrowband subscriber
  
  
  

• Penetration and Pricing

Penetration-wise, Australia’s broadband subscription rate appears on par with other countries such as United States and Japan. Below are OECD December 2006 statistics comparing broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants among 30 industrialised countries.

In a report released by OECD in October 2007, Australia was ranked ninth in terms of broadband speed, compared to earlier in the year when it was placed second from the bottom.

Source: OECD

The OECD findings also reveal that Australians have the 8th most expensive Internet prices among the 30 industrialised OECD countries surveyed. World News Australia also reports that more than 600,000 Australian households do not have internet connection because they find it too expensive. Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has acknowledged this fact, saying that prices are “clearly higher than overseas”.

Source: OECD

OECD research also show that Australia is one of a handful of countries that still offers broadband caps, and chargest the highest price per additional MB of data.

Others point to Telstra’s monopolistic position in the telecommunications industry as the source of slow speeds and high prices. In a Whirlpool survey on consumer sentiment regarding broadband, when asked who should be responsible for the next generation internet access technologies, 51.9% of respondents chose the government and 21.4% chose the G9 consortium, which consists of 9 Australian internet service providers with the exception of Telstra.

In the government elections, broadband was a key issue and the Labor Party proposed their vision of a broadband future for Australia. (Click here for more information of the National Broadband Network proposed by the new Labor government)

For more statistics on broadband, visit the OECD Broadband Portal at

http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_33703_38690102_1_1_1_1,00.html.

For more information on Australian broadband news and forum discussions,visit this website http://whirlpool.net.au/. For more statistics from the Australian Communication and Media Authority please visit http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310777/07-08_consumer_benefits_report_final.pdf.

Internet User Profiles












About 70% of all households had access to a computer and 60% had home Internet access in Australia. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Australia has about 15,300,000 Internet users as of Dec 2007 and of that, 4,700,200 broadband subscribers.

According to Lee Hopkins' presentation on 'What Makes Australians Tick?' at the 8th National PR Convention, he categorised Australians by their demographics and the various activities they participate online:

	Age	% of Population	Online Activities (according to frequency)
Builders	61 to 82	14	news, travel, games
Boomers	43 - 60	26	news, travel, games, blogs
Generation X	28 - 42	22	news, messaging, read blogs, downloads
Generation Y	13 - 27	20	news, messaging, texting, read and write blogs, downloads, games
Generation Z	under 12	18	texting, messaging, read and write blogs, downloads, games

International Comparisons

In 2007, the percentage of households with access to a home computer ranged from 89.1% (Iceland) to 12.2% (Turkey). Australia's level of computer use at home was at the upper end of this range; 75%. in 2007, Korea reported the highest penetration of household Internet access (94.1%). As for Australia the percentage of households with home Internet access was 67.0%, while the European Union average was only a mere 56.0%.