MEDIA RELEASE
8 April 2014	Embargo: 11:30 am (Canberra Time)	45/2014

There were over 2 million Australian internet subscribers accessing download speeds of 24Mbps or greater as at 31 December 2013, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is an additional 443,000 subscribers accessing the internet using the fastest speed range compared to the previous year.

ABS Assistant Director of Innovation and Technology, Ms Lesley Martin said the trend to higher download speeds is consistent with wider availability of fast internet technology.

"We are continuing to see growth in the number of subscribers accessing the internet through DSL, fibre and cable.

"The total volume of data downloaded (excluding mobile handsets) reached 861,000TB for the three months to the end of December 2013, an increase of a third compared to the volume downloaded in the June quarter 2013.

"Of this total, fixed-line broadband was used for 96 per cent of downloads, which confirms recent trends that subscribers are using fixed-line internet connections to download the majority of their data," said Ms Martin.

The survey also revealed an increase in mobile handset usage. Australia's 20.3 million mobile handset subscribers downloaded over 27,000TB in the three months ended 31 December 2013. This equates to 0.5GB of data downloaded per subscriber each month.

Further information is available in Internet Activity, Australia, December 2013 (cat. no. 8153.0) available for free download from www.abs.gov.au.

Media Note:

• The ABS internet activity survey is run twice a year and covers internet subscribers as at end June and December, and download activity in the three months April to June and October to December.
• Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source
• Media request and interviews - contact the ABS Communications Section on 1300 175 070.