4 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) STATISTICS

4.1 ICT REFERENCE GROUP
4.2 HOUSEHOLD USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HUIT)
4.3 ICT INDUSTRIES SURVEY (ICTIS)
4.4 FARM USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (FUIT)
4.5 INTERNET ACTIVITY
4.6 BUSINESS USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (BUIT)

4.1 ICT REFERENCE GROUP

The ABS established an ICT reference group in early 2004 involving government, industry, academic and community representatives. The aim of the reference group is to improve the usefulness of ICT statistics collected by the ABS from a variety of sources. The reference group provides a high level forum for understanding, improving and developing ICT statistics, by providing members with the opportunity to discuss and consider strategies to address ICT statistical issues.

The most recent meeting of the reference group was held on 24 March 2009 . The issues discussed included:

• changes to ABS work program in response to cost pressures
• current and emerging ICT Strategic Issues;
• directions for 2011 Census of Population and Housing in relation to ICT related questions and collection strategy;
• developments in Household Use of Information Technology Statistics;
• developments relating to Business Longitudinal Database Confidential Unit Record File
• international developments relating to of ICT statistics; and
• business collections conducted by other agencies.

The next meeting of the reference group is expected to be held in September 2009

4.2 HOUSEHOLD USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HUIT)

The latest publication Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2007-08 (cat. no. 8146.0) was released on 18 December 2008. The publication presents results compiled from data collected as part of the Multi-Purpose Household Survey for 2007-08. This collection was affected by the recent changes to the ABS survey program announced in April 2008, and therefore only summary results for the 2007-08 reference period were released. These results include key indicators such as household access to computers, internet and broadband, cross-classified by some demographic variables. More detailed data can be made available to clients on a consultancy basis. In addition to these summary results, this publication provided some data from the 2006 Time Use Survey, including data on access to teleworking and average time spent per day on the computer and/or the internet.

The ABS plans to publish more detailed HUIT results for the 2008-09 reference period on 16 December 2009, however there will be a reduction in the frequency of the HUIT collection from annual to biennial. Accordingly, no HUIT data will be collected for the 2009-10 reference period. The 2008-09 HUIT publication will also include results from the Children's participation in culture and leisure activities to be conducted in April 2009.

Development of HUIT 2010-11 is currently underway. The ABS is considering some improvements in sample design with a view to obtaining better regional breakdown on statistics.

For further information about HUIT statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Siddhartha De, Innovation and Technology NSC on (02) 6252 6519.

4.3 ICT INDUSTRIES SURVEY (ICTIS)

The ICT Industry Survey (ICTIS) has been affected by recent changes to the ABS work program. Currently ICTIS is being considered as part of an Annual Integrated Collections (AIC) program setting process for producing estimates of production and distribution of ICT goods and services by businesses in Australia. A prioritisation process is currently underway which will consider the importance of the ICTIS topic relative to other industry collections considered for inclusion in the the 2010-11 reference year AIC program.

For the most recent ICTIS results, see Information and Communication Technology, Australia, 2006-07 (cat. no. 8126.0).

4.4 FARM USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (FUIT)

The ABS publication Use of Information Technology on Farms, Australia, 2004–05 (ABS cat. no. 8150.0) was last released on 28 August 2006. This publication presents statistics on the use of computers and the Internet on farms in Australia. The data were obtained from questions included in the 2004-05 Agricultural Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Information obtained was in respect of the year ended 30 June 2005.

The next issue will be released on 17 August 2009. This release presents final estimates for internet use indicators collected on the 2007-08 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). At this stage, as a result of changes to ABS work programs, no future FUIT survey is planned.

For further information about statistics related to farms use of the Internet, please contact Tim Landrigan on (08) 9360 5104.

4.5 INTERNET ACTIVITY

Internet Activity, Australia, December 2008 (ABS cat. no. 8153.0) was released on 6 April 2009. Data in this release are sourced from the Internet Activity Survey (IAS), and are based on results for all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as at 31 December 2008. The Internet Activity Survey contains details on subscriber characteristics such as counts of business and government and household subscribers, access connection by speed, access technology, state and territory of subscribers and the volume of data downloaded. Key recent trends have included strong growth in the number of wireless broadband subscribers and a continued increase in the number of subscribers with higher-speed connections.

The reference periods for this collection are December and June which align with international reporting of broadband statistics by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). From June 2009, both cycles will collect data from all ISPs with more than 1,000 active subscribers which will provide greater scope and coverage in both cycles and allows the ABS to produce better outputs. This is a change from previous cycles where December was a full census of all ISPs and June was a reduced scope survey of all ISPs with more than 10,000 active subscribers. A full census of all ISPs will be conducted every three years to ensure coverage.

The June 2009 data are expected to be released on the 14 September 2009.

If you wish to know more about IAS statistics, please contact Tim Landrigan on (08) 9360 5104.

4.6 BUSINESS USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (BUIT)

Data on business use of information technology (BUIT) is now collected as a part of the ABS omnibus business characteristics survey. Summary outputs about the incidence of IT use by Australian business are published annually, with more detailed information available every second year. The latest issue Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business, 2007–08 (cat. no. 8166.0) was released on 25 June 2009.

Detailed BUIT information was collected in respect of 2005-06 and the publication Business Use of Information Technology, 2005-06 (cat. no. 8129.0) was released on 7 December 2007. Data cubes associated with cat. no. 8129.0 were released in early 2008 and provide a range of cross classified output (e.g. by employment size ranges and industry).

The next release of detailed information about the use of IT by Australian Business (due to be published on 20 August 2009) will be in respect of the 2007-08 reference year.

For more information about business characteristics outputs (including BUIT, Innovation and general business characteristics), please contact Peter Hodgson, Innovation and Technology Business Statistics Centre, ABS on (08) 9360 5367.