This is the final issue of the Internet Activity Survey as the ABS has ceased undertaking the collection. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is intending to undertake collection and analysis of internet activity from the December 2018 reporting period onwards. For further information refer to
https://www.accc.gov.au/regulated-infrastructure/communications/monitoring-reporting/internet-activity-record-keeping-rule-rkr.
Type of access connection
There were 14.7 million internet subscribers in Australia at the end of June 2018. This is an increase of 3.6% from the end of December 2017.
Fibre connections grew by 22.4% in the six months between December 2017 and June 2018. Fibre growth for the year to June 2018 was 69.8%, reaching 3.6 million subscribers.
Broadband internet subscribers(a), by type of access connection
| Jun 2017 | Dec 2017 | Jun 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| '000 | '000 | '000 | ||
| Broadband subscribers | ||||
| DSL | 4 233 | 3 706 | 3 232 | |
| Cable | 1 010 | 924 | 937 | |
| Fibre | 2 144 | 2 973 | 3 640 | |
| Satellite | np | 120 | 132 | |
| Fixed wireless | 138 | 199 | 217 | |
| Mobile wireless | 6 107 | 6 286 | 6 561 | |
| Other | np | 0 (b) | 1 | |
| All broadband subscribers | 13 748 | 14 209 | 14 720 | |
np not available for publication but included in the totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
a. Refer to the Glossary for definition of subscribers.
b. nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
Volume of data downloaded
The total volume of data downloaded in the three months ended 30 June 2018 was 3.8 million Terabytes (or 3.8 Exabytes).
This is a 7.0% increase in data downloads when compared with the three months ended 31 December 2017 and a 28.1% increase compared with the three months ended June 2017.
Data downloaded via fixed line broadband (3.7 million Terabytes) accounted for 96.8.% of all internet downloads in the three months ended 30 June 2018.
Volume of data downloaded by type of access connection(a)
| Jun 2017 | Dec 2017 | Jun 2018 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TB | TB | TB | |||
Volume of data downloaded | |||||
| Broadband | |||||
| Fixed line(b) | 2 913 245 | 3 478 568 | 3 714 068 | ||
| Wireless(c) | 82 727 | 107 960 | 123 147 | ||
| Total Broadband | 2 995 972 | 3 586 528 | 3 837 215 | ||
a. The volume of data downloaded is reported for the three month period prior to the reference date.
b. Fixed line includes DSL, cable, fibre and other fixed line broadband.
c. Wireless includes satellite, fixed wireless, mobile wireless via a datacard, dongle, USB modem or tablet SIM card and other wireless broadband. Excludes data downloaded via mobile handsets which is reported in the mobile handset section.
The growth in the number of subscribers has remained stable while the growth in the volume of data downloaded has slowed.
Mobile handset subscribers
As at 30 June 2018, there were approximately 27.0 million mobile handset subscribers in Australia. This is an increase of 1.1% since December 2017.
The volume of data downloaded via mobile handsets for the three months ended 30 June 2018 was 246,765 Terabytes. This was a 21.5% increase in data downloads via mobile handsets when compared with the three months ended 30 December 2017 and a 40.9% increase in downloads compared to the three months ended 30 June 2017.
| Jun 2017 | Dec 2017 | Jun 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total mobile handset subscribers | '000 | 26,330 | 26,694 | 26,981 |
| Volume of data downloaded via mobile handset(a)(b) | TB | 175,076 | 203,157 | 246,765 |
- The volume of data downloaded is reported for the three month period prior to the reference date.
- The volume of data downloaded by mobile handsets may only include revenue generating downloads, and not monthly data allowances, or downloads that don't contribute to data download allowances.