The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued its latest report on internet activity, finding mobile handsets continued to be Australia’s most popular way to access the internet while the largest volume of data was downloaded over fixed lines.
In its report, Internet Activity Record Keeping Rule, the ACCC found the number of retail services in operation (SIOs) reached 39.9 million as at the end of last year; 24.3 million of these were mobile handsets, 8.4 million were wireless broadband and 7.2 million were fixed-line/wired broadband.
Commissioner at the ACCC, Cristina Cifuentes said the report provided a clear indication that while consumers were most often using their phones to access the internet, when downloading significant content they currently favoured fixed-line connections.
“The greatest proportion of total fixed-line/wired connections are fibre connections (at 49 per cent) with DSL connections accounting for 34 per cent,” Ms Cifuentes said.
“Fixed-line/wired technologies accounted for 91 per cent of the total volume of data downloaded. Mobile handsets and wireless broadband contributed significantly less to the total with proportions of six per cent and three per cent respectively.”
She said the volume of data downloaded was expected to grow exponentially as the result of the increased usage of content streaming services such as Netflix, social media such as Facebook, and applications including online gaming that continued to incorporate content-rich and video components.
Data for the report was collected under the Internet Activity Record Keeping Rule (RKR).
The ACCC’s four-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
