Internet Activity, Australia

This release has ceased

The Internet Activity Survey contains details of internet usage. It includes subscriber data by connection type, volume of downloads and speed

Reference period
June 2018

This is the final issue of the Internet Activity Survey as the ABS has ceased undertaking the collection. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is intending to undertake collection and analysis of internet activity from the December 2018 reporting period onwards. For further information refer to
https://www.accc.gov.au/regulated-infrastructure/communications/monitoring-reporting/internet-activity-record-keeping-rule-rkr.

Type of access connection

There were 14.7 million internet subscribers in Australia at the end of June 2018. This is an increase of 3.6% from the end of December 2017.

Fibre connections grew by 22.4% in the six months between December 2017 and June 2018. Fibre growth for the year to June 2018 was 69.8%, reaching 3.6 million subscribers.

Broadband internet subscribers(a), by type of access connection

  Jun 2017Dec 2017Jun 2018
  '000'000'000
Broadband subscribers   
 DSL4 2333 7063 232
 Cable1 010924937
 Fibre2 1442 9733 640
 Satellitenp120132
 Fixed wireless138199217
 Mobile wireless6 1076 2866 561
 Othernp0 (b)1
All broadband subscribers13 74814 20914 720

np not available for publication but included in the totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
a. Refer to the Glossary for definition of subscribers.
b. nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
 

Volume of data downloaded

The total volume of data downloaded in the three months ended 30 June 2018 was 3.8 million Terabytes (or 3.8 Exabytes).

This is a 7.0% increase in data downloads when compared with the three months ended 31 December 2017 and a 28.1% increase compared with the three months ended June 2017.

Data downloaded via fixed line broadband (3.7 million Terabytes) accounted for 96.8.% of all internet downloads in the three months ended 30 June 2018.

Volume of data downloaded by type of access connection(a)

  Jun 2017Dec 2017Jun 2018
  TBTBTB

Volume of data downloaded

    
Broadband    
 Fixed line(b)2 913 2453 478 5683 714 068
 Wireless(c)82 727107 960123 147
Total Broadband 2 995 9723 586 5283 837 215

a. The volume of data downloaded is reported for the three month period prior to the reference date.
b. Fixed line includes DSL, cable, fibre and other fixed line broadband.
c. Wireless includes satellite, fixed wireless, mobile wireless via a datacard, dongle, USB modem or tablet SIM card and other wireless broadband. Excludes data downloaded via mobile handsets which is reported in the mobile handset section.
 

The growth in the number of subscribers has remained stable while the growth in the volume of data downloaded has slowed.

Mobile handset subscribers

As at 30 June 2018, there were approximately 27.0 million mobile handset subscribers in Australia. This is an increase of 1.1% since December 2017.

The volume of data downloaded via mobile handsets for the three months ended 30 June 2018 was 246,765 Terabytes. This was a 21.5% increase in data downloads via mobile handsets when compared with the three months ended 30 December 2017 and a 40.9% increase in downloads compared to the three months ended 30 June 2017.

Internet connections via a mobile handset
Jun 2017Dec 2017Jun 2018
Total mobile handset subscribers'00026,33026,69426,981
Volume of data downloaded via mobile handset(a)(b)TB175,076203,157246,765
  1. The volume of data downloaded is reported for the three month period prior to the reference date.
  2. The volume of data downloaded by mobile handsets may only include revenue generating downloads, and not monthly data allowances, or downloads that don't contribute to data download allowances.

Data downloads

Tables 1-5 Internet activity survey June 2018

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8153.0.

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