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INTRODUCTION

The Internet Activity Survey (IAS) is a census which collects details on aspects of Internet access services provided by ISPs in Australia. This publication contains results from all identified Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating in Australia at 30 September 2003.

Estimates for data at the State/Territory level are derived from data provided for POPs (Point Of Presence or servers). In recent cycles, changing access technologies, infrastructure and operational arrangements have been impacting on the quality of the data at the POP level. As a result, data presented at the State/Territory level should be considered only indicative measures of Internet activity.

The same issues related to the quality of POP data have had a more significant impact at the Statistical Division level. These data cannot be adequately quality assured and could present misleading indicators of regional activity and usage. These data are no longer available for release.
The requirement to report number of access lines available for use of subscribers for both dial-up and non-dial up technologies has resulted in significantly improved reporting for this item and contributed to a major increase in the number of access lines reported.

A comprehensive coverage exercise was undertaken prior to the conduct of the September quarter 2003 collection. This has resulted in a higher than usual increase in the number of ISPs being introduced to the survey. Analysis indicates that these additional units are predominently in the very small and small size ranges used in the Internet Activity Survey and that the impact on survey data is minimal.

New questions and changes to existing questions have increased the data available for both subscriber numbers and subscriber activity relating to access technologies. For the first time, data regarding download speed of access connection have been collected allowing improved analysis of the uptake of broadband. Changes to questions on data downloaded and access lines available to subscribers have resulted in the availability of these data for both dial-up and non dial-up subscribers as well as household and business/government subscribers.

A series of new questions on SPAM filtering products and their provision by ISPs have been introduced. Questions relating to additional services provided by ISPs have been removed for this reference period.

Comments and suggestions for both survey content and this publication are welcome and should be addressed to the Director, Innovation & Technology Business Statistics Centre, GPO Box K881, Perth, WA, 6842.

Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between the sum of the components and the total. Averages have been calculated using unrounded data.

• At the end of September 2003, total Internet subscribers in Australia numbered over 5.2 million, this is an increase of 135,000 (3%) from the end of March 2003. This modest increase follows the larger increases recorded in the previous two collections, 11% for the six months ended March 2003 and 8% for the six months ended September 2002.

• Dial-up subscriber numbers in Australia fell by 85,000 (2%) in the six months to September 2003. Dial-up subscribers as a proportion of total subscribers fell below 90% for the first time.

• The number of non dial-up subscribers grew from 470,000 at the end of the March 2003 to 690,000 at the end of September 2003, an increase of 220,000 (47%) reflecting the continuing move toward these technologies. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) subscriber numbers grew strongly from 209,000 in the March quarter 2003 to 372,000 in the September quarter 2003, an increase of 163,000 (78%).

• There were 667 ISPs supplying Internet access to 5.2 million active subscribers at the end of the September quarter 2003. This is an increase of 113 ISPs (20%) over the six months from the end of the March quarter 2003. About half of the new ISPs were identified from new web-based sources as part of an exercise aimed at improving industry coverage (see 'Data Quality' in the Notes section for details). All new units identified in this exercise were found to be in the very small and small categories and in general, had a minimal impact on survey results.

• Changes to the question used to collect the number of access lines available for subscribers contributed significantly to the large increase (52%) for the September quarter 2003. ISPs now provide the number of access lines available to subscribers for dial-up and non-dial up separately. For this reason, data should not be compared to previous quarters. Data from the September quarter 2003 showed that there were just over 626,000 access lines available for dial-up subscribers and just under 681,000 access lines available for non-dial up subscribers.

• The number of subscribers by download speed of access connection was collected for the first time. The intention is to provide a measure of broadband uptake that utilises speed of access connection rather than the technology being used to deliver the connection. The definition currently being utilised by the ABS defines broadband as “an 'always on' Internet connection with an access speed equal to or greater than 256kbps”. At the end of September 2003, there were 657,000 broadband subscribers by this definition.

• At the end of September 2003, 384 (or 58%) ISPs offered their subscribers a SPAM filtering product as either a free or charged service. Almost 2.5 million subscribers had adopted a SPAM filtering product at the end of September 2003.

• Data downloaded by subscribers increased by 53% from 3,046 million MBs to 4,665 million MBs. Non dial-up subscribers accounted for over 67% of the total data downloaded reflecting the much faster download speeds available.

INTERNET ACTIVITY SUMMARY, Australia
					September	March	September	March	September
					Quarter 2001	Quarter 2002	Quarter 2002	Quarter 2003	Quarter 2003
ISPs(a)(b)
	Very small	no.			112	102	102	110	153
	Small	no.			299	276	254	251	316
	Medium	no.			155	161	172	160	163
	Large	no.			30	26	29	26	27
	Very large	no.			6	6	6	7	8
	Total	no.			602	571	563	554	667
Internet Access(b)
	Dial-up Access Lines	no.							626,554
	Non Dial-up Access Lines								680,933
	Access lines	no.			486,877	447,050	639,197	857,470	1,307,487
Subscribers(b)
	Dial-up
	Business and government							520	505
	Household							4,087	4,017
	Total							4,607	4,522
	Non Dial-up
	Business and government							139	190
	Household							331	499
	Total							470	690
	Total
	Business and government	'000			559	505	650	659	696
	Household	'000			3,726	3,724	3,904	4,417	4,516
	Total	'000			4,285	4,229	4,555	5,076	5,211
Data downloaded(c)
	Dial-up
	Business and government								178
	Household								1,341
	Total								1,520
	Non Dial-up
	Business and government								1,169
	Household								1,976
	Total								3,145
	Total
	Business and government	million Mbs			506	528	740	782	1,347
	Household	million Mbs			780	1,303	2,172	2,264	3,317
	Total	million Mbs			1,286	1,831	2,913	3,046	4,665
--	Nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a)	See paragraph 7 of Explanatory Notes for description of ISP size categories.			(b)	As at the end of the reference quarter.
				(c)	During the three months of the reference quarter.

INTERNET ACTIVITY SUMMARY, State and territory
			September	March	September	March	September
			Quarter 2001	Quarter 2002	Quarter 2002	Quarter 2003	Quarter 2003
NEW SOUTH WALES
ISPs(a)	no.		244	236	240	212	236
Access lines(b)	no.		155,291	160,100	241,541	295,563	449,591
All subscribers(b)	'000		1,446	1,441	1,583	1,770	1,828
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		435	676	1,132	1,074	1,672
VICTORIA
ISPs(a)	no.		220	212	198	187	213
Access lines(b)	no.		141,313	114,544	163,855	241,274	347,371
All subscribers(b)	'000		1,160	1,045	1,180	1,338	1,394
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		347	457	709	847	1,197
QUEENSLAND
ISPs(a)	no.		161	151	150	146	170
Access lines(b)	no.		93,985	77,432	102,767	143,362	219,800
All subscribers(b)	'000		829	863	822	886	923
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		206	308	524	464	688
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
ISPs(a)	no.		70	74	65	57	62
Access lines(b)	no.		31,027	31,394	34,807	44,386	84,533
All subscribers(b)	'000		280	294	328	347	343
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		99	125	141	193	396
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
ISPs(a)	no.		100	100	92	85	96
Access lines(b)	no.		41,104	42,647	65,044	86,538	137,786
All subscribers(b)	'000		363	386	411	472	472
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		129	173	273	303	522
TASMANIA
ISPs(a)	no.		29	30	28	22	24
Access lines(b)	no.		10,354	9,159	12,404	20,876	28,109
All subscribers(b)	'000		95	88	98	109	107
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		31	36	49	60	78
NORTHERN TERRITORY
ISPs(a)	no.		18	21	23	15	18
Access lines(b)	no.		4,163	3,661	4,701	6,860	9,340
All subscribers(b)	'000		45	43	37	38	35
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		9	16	19	26	25
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
ISPs(a)	no.		49	46	44	37	38
Access lines(b)	no.		9,640	8,113	14,078	18,611	30,957
All subscribers(b)	'000		68	71	95	116	110
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		28	40	66	80	87
AUSTRALIA
ISPs(a)	no.		602	571	563	554	667
Access lines(b)	no.		486,877	447,050	639,197	857,470	1,307,487
All subscribers(b)	'000		4,285	4,229	4,555	5,076	5,211
Data downloaded(c)	million Mbs		1,286	1,831	2,913	3,046	4,665
(a) Based on State or Territory of operations not Head Office Location - see 'Data Quality' in Notes section on Page 2 for details. (b) As at the end of the reference quarter.
(c) During the three months of the reference quarter.