The number of broadband connections in Australia passed half a million according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Snapshot of Broadband Deployment, an update of which was released today.
“The report shows that as at the end of June 2003, there were 516,900 broadband services connected across Australia, up from 258,100 at the same time last year”, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said. “This represents an annual increase of more than 100 per cent.”
“Even more significant is that the per quarter growth rate appears to be improving after two quarters of relatively flat growth”, said Mr Samuel. “Broadband connections grew at a rate of 22.0% across April – June 2003. This is an improvement from the 16.5% and 16.4% per quarter growth that was reported across January – March 2003 and October – December 2002, respectively.”
The major source of this sharp increase is the growth of DSL take-up, up from 218,800 in the January – March 2003 quarter to 288,100 in the April – June 2003 quarter. More generally, DSL services have grown by more than 166 per cent since June 2002.
“DSL continues to stamp its authority as the preferred broadband technology for many Australians”, Mr Samuel said. “By comparison there were only 215,400 cable services connected at June 2003 an increase of only 53 per cent since June 2002”.
Current and previous ACCC Broadband Snapshot reports will be available on the ACCC website and clicking on telecommunication statistics.
Additional contacts
Chris Pattas, A/g General Manager, Telecommunications, (03) 9290 1858
Broadband in Australia is predominately provided using either Hybrid Fibre Coax (Cable) or through Telstra’s traditional copper network using digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. The growth in these DSL technologies continues to be the main driver of the growth in broadband connections.
In May 2003 the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts issued the ACCC with a direction requiring a quarterly report monitoring and reporting on competition in broadband services. This report will replace this series of reports. The ACCC is currently working on implementation of this determination.
