A new report from Australia's Bureau of Statistics states there were 13.7 million internet subscribers across the nation at the end of June 2017 - and their appetite for data is growing.
ABS states the 13.7 million figure represents an increase of 2.1% from the end of December 2016.
The Bureau reported the following statistics on connection type as at June 30 this year, based on ISPs with more than 1,000 subscribers. Bracketed figures indicated totals in June 2016
- DSL: 4,233,000 (5,032,000)
- Cable: 1,010,000 (1,029,000)
- Fibre: 2,144,000 (960,000)
- Satellite: not available (62,000)
- Fixed Wireless: 138,000 (83,000)
- Mobile Wireless: 6,107,000 (6,039,000)
As for dialup subscribers, ABS has stopped recording statistics on this segment as it is now tiny.
Data Downloads Climbing Fast
The amount of data downloaded by Australians has been dramatically increasing. ABS reports the total volume in the three months ended 30 June 2017 was 3.0 million Terabytes (3.0 Exabytes). This was 15.8% more compared to the three months ended 31 December last year and a 42.8% increase in data downloads in the year between June 2016 and June 2017.
The 2.9 million Terabytes downloaded by fixed line broadband users accounted for 97.2% of all internet downloads in the three months ended 30 June 2017.
Fixed wireless-based downloads increased from 48,100 Terabytes in the 3 months prior to June 30 2016 to 82,727 Terabytes in the 3 months prior to June 30, 2017 - an increase of 72%.
Appetite for data will no doubt continue to increase; fuelled by more Australians having faster connections and some ISPs offering unlimited broadband plans.
With regard to Australian mobile handset users, they downloaded 175,076 Terabytes in the three months ended 30 June 2017, up 44.5% on the three months prior to 30 June 2016
"For the 26.3 million mobile handset subscribers, this equates to 2.2 GB of data downloaded per subscriber per month," says the ABS.
The number of medium to very large ISPs in Australia appears to have dropped off. ABS reported 63 ISPs nationally with more than 1,000 subscribers as at June 30, down from 66 in the previous period. The segment with the greatest of number of ISPs is the Medium category (1,001 - 10,000 subscribers).
More statistics and detail can be viewed here: 8153.0 - Internet Activity, Australia, June 2017.
