Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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EXPLANATORY NOTES


INTRODUCTION

1 This release presents results from the Internet Activity Survey (IAS) conducted in respect of the three months ended 31 December 2010.


SCOPE AND COVERAGE

2 The December 2010 IAS covers Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who operated in Australia as at 31 December 2010. ISPs are defined as businesses that supply internet connectivity and access services to individuals, households, businesses, government and other organisations. Libraries, internet kiosks, internet cafes and hot-spots which provide internet access on a casual basis are excluded from the survey population.

3 The source of the IAS population frame is a lists of ISPs from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), with which ISPs are required to register. Using this list as a basis, the ABS maintains its own confidential list of ISPs. The TIO register may contain the following organisations that are out of scope or counted differently on the IAS: those that are no longer operating as ISPs, including wholesalers and web hosting ISPs only; those where there is common ownership and, therefore reporting is consolidated for these ISPs on the IAS; and other types of organisations that are required to register with the TIO (e.g. Telecommunications companies which do not provide ISP services).

4 The reference periods for this collection are June and December to align with international reporting of broadband statistics by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The IAS generally includes information reported by all ISPs operating in Australia, with more than 1,000 active subscribers, as at 30 June and 31 December. At least every three years, the ABS conducts a full census of all Australian ISPs, including those with 1,000 or less active subscribers. The last census of all ISPs was conducted in June 2010. The census is conducted as an on-line survey of all ISPs, with ISPs who have 1,000 or less active subscribers completing only a subset of questions. The overall contribution of these smaller ISPs was less than 1% of all subscribers for the June 2010 IAS, with minimal contribution to any other data released. This approach to the IAS provides frequent and timely data on key trends while keeping resource usage and provider load to acceptable levels, particularly for smaller ISPs.

5 While mobile wireless internet connections using a datacard, dongle, USB modem or tablet SIM card have been collected by the IAS for some time now, internet connections via a mobile handset were included in the scope of this survey for the first time in December 2009. The data were not released as it was found that providers needed more time to adapt their reporting systems to the new requirements. For the June 2010 IAS, this issue was resolved and the mobile handset data were published in Appendix 1. For December 2010, data for mobile handsets are reported in the Main Features.


SUBSCRIBERS

6 Active subscribers are defined as subscribers that have an internet connection with an ISP on the last day of the reference period. ABS subscriber statistics measure the number of 'subscriber lines' rather than the number of 'users' and therefore, counts of subscribers are not the same as counts of people/organisations with internet access. This is because some subscribers may have accounts with more than one ISP or multiple accounts with a single ISP. Conversely, there are single ISP subscriber accounts that provide internet access for multiple people/organisations (e.g. universities).


STATISTICAL UNIT

7 The unit for which statistics are reported in the IAS is the legal entity providing internet access.

8 ISPs in the IAS have been classified by size according to the number of subscribers that ISPs reported at the end of the reference period. The size categories are defined as follows:

• errors in the reporting of data by respondents;
• errors in capturing or processing of data;
• estimation for missing or misreported data; and
• definition and classification errors.

Business Use of Information Technology, cat. no. 8129.0
Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, cat. no. 8146.0
Patterns of Internet Access in Australia, 2006, cat. no. 8146.0.55.001
Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Businesses, cat. no. 8166.0
Selected Characteristics of Australian Business, cat. no. 8167.0
Information and Communication Technology, Australia, cat. no. 8126.0