Australians downloaded more than 3.17 million terabytes of data in the June 2017 quarter according to a new report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), up 43 per cent on the same period in 2016.
The total volume of data consumption has skyrocketed by 360 per cent in the last four years.
The ACMA's Communications Report 2016–17, tabled in federal parliament on Friday, reveals 89% of Australian adults are accessing the internet; rising to 100 per cent among the 18–34 age group.
"We are downloading, consuming and creating more data and content than ever before," said ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin. "We are also communicating in ways that we couldn’t have predicted a decade—or even five years—ago."
During the June quarter this year, the average amount of data downloaded by a subscriber increased over:
- fixed-line broadband : +35 per cent (394.4 gigabytes)
- wireless broadband: +67 per cent (13.0 gigabytes)
- mobile handset internet: +36 per cent (6.6 gigabytes)
Part of the increase in bandwidth usage can be attributed to the growing popularity of video - in the six months to June 2017, eight in 10 Australian internet users viewed video content online.
"We’ve been using a broader range of devices, with smart TVs increasingly popular as a way to access the internet, particularly for streaming content," says the ACMA. "And we’re now consuming more online video—particularly catch-up television and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services."
The mobile phone is the most frequently used device to go online, with eighty-four per cent of online Australians using mobile handsets to access the internet at least once a day; whereas 69 percent use laptop computers and 54 percent, desktop computers. The volume of data downloaded over mobile handsets was 45 per cent higher in the June quarter of 2017 than the same period last year.
Of the Australians who go online, 71 per cent access the internet three or more times a day.
In the June quarter, the total number of internet service subscriptions in Australia had reached over 40 million, indicating many Australians access the web via more than one device. This figure includes mobile phone, mobile wireless broadband, fixed-line broadband, satellite, fixed-wireless broadband, other broadband and dial-up subscribers.
Around 16 million Australian adults (86%) had a home broadband connection. The ACMA says this figure has remained constant since 2015–16, reflecting almost all home internet connections are now broadband
More highlights and the full Communications Report 2016–17 can be downloaded here.
