Statistics recently published on the OECD Broadband Portal indicate there were more than 7.16 million fixed broadband subscribers in Australia as at June last year.
The report states fixed-line broadband subscriptions in the 35-country OECD area hit 380 million as of June 2016, up from 363 million a year earlier. Australia ranked number 12 in the OECD in terms of total numbers.
There were approximately 29.8 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 Australians, which matches the overall OECD average.
DSL represented the most prevalent broadband technology in the OECD, accounting for 44.7% of fixed broadband subscriptions. The report notes however that it is being gradually replaced by fibre; which grew 16% between 2015 and 2016 to reach 20.1%. Cable was the second most common high-speed connection technology at 32.2%.
Fibre connections in Australia grew 128.57% between June 2015 and June 2016. As at June last year, fibre subscriptions made up 13.4% of all fixed broadband connections in Australia.
Across the OECD, mobile broadband penetration reached 95 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in June last year, up from 86 per 100 in June 2015.
In Australia, there were a total of 28,005,000 mobile broadband subscriptions as at June 2016, which works out to 116.4 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. This level put Australia at no.7 in OECD per-capita rankings.
There were 20 countries with more than 100 subscriptions per 100 residents, up from nine nations the previous year.
The top countries for per capita rates were: Japan, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the US, Estonia, Australia, Korea, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand and Switzerland.
123 million new mobile broadband subscriptions throughout the OECD represented a year-on-year increase of 11.3%, driven by the ongoing rise in the use of smartphones and tablets
By the end of June last year, there were a whopping 1.214 billion mobile broadband subscriptions among a population of 1.27 billion people.
The five largest fixed broadband markets as at June were the USA, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom respective. The biggest mobile broadband markets were the USA, Japan, Mexico, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Further statistics can be viewed on the OECD Broadband Portal.
