8159.3 - Household Telephone Connections, Queensland, Oct 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 29/04/2004   
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INTRODUCTION

This publication contains results from the October 2003 State Supplementary Survey, Bicycle Usage and Household Telephone Connections, Queensland. It presents information on fixed telephone connections of households and individuals, as well as a person's access to a mobile phone. The focus was to determine telephone coverage of households and individuals across the state.

Topics covered include: number of fixed telephone lines in the home; availability of these lines to standard telephone calls and access to mobile phones.

Information about bicycle usage is included in the publication Bicycle Usage, Queensland, October 2003 (cat. no. 9215.3).


SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

QUEENSLAND

Household telephone connections

In October 2003, an estimated 1,403,500 (95.3%) of the 1,473,200 households in Queensland had at least one fixed telephone connection. Couples with dependents accounted for 32.0% of all households with connections, followed by couple only households (27.4%), persons living alone (21.7%) and single parent households (8.8%).

For the purposes of the survey, fixed telephone connections were defined as connections having their own telephone number, including those connections which were used partially or totally for facsimile (fax) or the Internet.

Households by type of connection

Of the 1,403,500 households with at least one fixed telephone connection:

(i) Contactable

  • 1,390,700 households (99.1%) had at least one contactable connection
  • 12,800 households had no contactable connections

(ii) Listed
  • 1,149,100 households (81.9%) had at least one listed connection
  • 254,400 households had no listed connections

(iii) Listed and contactable
  • 1,138,500 households (81.1%) had at least one listed and contactable connection
  • 264,900 households had other connections


For further definitions of the terms used above, please see the Glossary.

In almost all households (99.1%), at least one of the fixed telephone connections was reported as contactable, that is, able to receive standard telephone calls. Contactable connections also include those that were mostly used for fax or Internet.

There were 1,149,100 (81.9%) connected households where at least one of the connections was listed in the residential section of Telstra's White Pages. The use of silent numbers would be a substantial factor in the difference between listed versus non listed connections. Not all listed connections are contactable; dedicated connections for fax or internet services can be listed but may not be able to receive standard telephone calls (contactable).

Not all of the listed connections were contactable by phone and not all contactable phone numbers were listed; the proportion of connected households that were both listed and contactable was 81.1%.

Persons and telephone connections

Of all persons aged 18 years old and over, an estimated 2,669,600 or 96.2% lived in households with at least one fixed telephone line connection. Of this group, those aged from 30-49 years accounted for 40.0% of connections, followed by the 50-69 year age group (28.5%), the 18-29 year age group (21.6%) and then persons aged 70 years and over at 9.9%.

Of people living in households with at least one fixed telephone connection, most (99.4%) were in households where at least one of these connections was contactable.

The proportion of people with access to connections that were listed in the residential section of Telstra's White Pages was 82.5%. This decreased to 82.0% for the proportion of people with both listed and contactable connections.

PERSONS: TYPE OF TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS BY SEX
Graph: PERSONS: TYPE OF TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS BY SEX

Mobile phones

In October 2003, an estimated 1,892,900 (68.2%) of 2,774,800 persons in Queensland had the use of a mobile phone.

For the purposes of this survey, use of a mobile phone referred to any person aged 18 years and over, who had the use of a mobile telephone including one supplied by an employer, or by sharing with another person.

PERSONS: HAD USE OF A MOBILE PHONE BY AGE AND SEX
Graph: PERSONS: HAD USE OF A MOBILE PHONE BY AGE AND SEX

In Queensland, there were similar proportions of males (50.1%) and females (49.9%) with the use of a mobile phone, living in households with at least one connection. Persons with the use of a mobile phone in households that had no connections tended to be in the younger age groups, with 56.1% in the 18-29 year age group and 34.6% in the 30-49 year age group.

STATISTICAL REGIONS

Household telephone connections

The proportion of households with fixed connections in the Brisbane Major Statistical Region (MSR) was 96.2% (650,100 households). In the remainder of the state the proportion was 94.4% (753,400 households). There was variation evident across the statistical regions (SR), ranging from 91.8% (76,300 households) in the Northern-North West SR to 99.1% (141,100 households) in the North and West BSD Balance SR.

HOUSEHOLDS: NUMBER OF TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS

Graph: HOUSEHOLDS: NUMBER OF TELEPHONE CONNECTIONS


The proportion of connected households with both listed and contactable connections in the Brisbane MSR was 77.6% (504,300 households), while in the remainder of the state the proportion was 84.2% (634,200 households).

HOUSEHOLDS: NUMBER OF LISTED AND CONTACTABLE CONNECTIONS
Graph: HOUSEHOLDS: NUMBER OF LISTED AND CONTACTABLE CONNECTIONS

Mobile phones

Within Brisbane MSR 71.6% of persons had the use of a mobile phone compared with 65.2% for the remainder of the state.

The South and East Moreton SR had the highest proportion of persons with the use of a mobile phone (74.6%) and the Far North SR had the lowest (52.9%).