Take-up of broadband services in Australia continues to increase, according to the latest Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Snapshot of Broadband Deployment, issued today.

"The report estimates that as at 30 September 2006, there were 3,639,700 total broadband connections across Australia," ACCC Commissioner, Mr Ed Willett, said.

"Once again, the September quarter showed an increase of more than one million customers, or 51.2 per cent, over the preceding 12-month period. This growth continues a trend observed since June 2005.

"Since the entry of a number of new competitors and lower retail prices for broadband services in early 2004, there has been a notable increase in broadband take-up. For example, since the March quarter 2004, take-up of broadband services has increased by more than 400 per cent.

"However, as we would expect, in annual terms the percentage growth of take-up has declined given the increase of the total subscriber base in absolute terms."

DSL-based services remain the most popular type of broadband adopted by Australians, comprising approximately three-quarters of all broadband service connections. However, take-up of all other forms of broadband measured in the September quarter - including cable, satellite and wireless - continues to increase.

In preparing the Broadband Snapshot report for the September quarter, the ACCC made adjustments to the historical data for the xDSL ('Other DSL') category. The adjustments are aimed at ensuring against double-counting in the data, and were made after consultation with the reporting carriers.

Current and previous ACCC Broadband Snapshot reports are available on the ACCC website.