The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued a further update to its Snapshot of Broadband Deployment, a report providing statistics on broadband take-up across Australia.
"The report shows that as at the end of June 2002, there were 283,600* broadband services connected across Australia", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today. "During the past year take-up of broadband services has increased by 131%. Growth in the March-June quarter was up 30%, which continues the solid growth seen recently".
Broadband services allow users to access information from on line networks at much faster speeds than ordinary dial-up services. This also enables access to more diverse and richer audio and video-based content.
Broadband in Australia is predominantly provided using either Hybrid Fibre Coax (cable) or through Telstra's traditional copper network using digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. The most popular form of DSL technology is asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL), which is particularly suited to Internet applications.
In June 2001 cable was clearly the pre-eminent broadband technology with 92,500 cable services connected, compared to 28,000 DSL services, with ADSL connections making up 95% of these. Over the past year, however, growth in take-up of DSL services has far exceeded cable. ADSL increased by 354% while cable services only increased by 52%. DSL now trails cable in total by less than 7,000 services and is likely to overtake cable in the next quarter.
"These annual growth rates are of course from a relatively small base. While Australia's overall figures are behind leading broadband countries, the latest figures tend to suggest that the recent healthy increases seen in the March quarter were no 'flash in the pan' and that broadband growth continues at a rapid pace.
“The relatively faster growth of DSL services should also not be too surprising. Not only are DSL services more widely available than cable services, but there is more intense competition amongst DSL providers thanks to the ACCC’s efforts to open up Telstra’s local loop and ensure that appropriately priced and tailored wholesale ADSL services are made available to broadband providers.
"It is also encouraging to see strong growth in business take-up of broadband services. There are now 65,800 businesses connected to broadband, up from 16,500 in June 2001,an annual growth rate of 299%. This is particularly important given the positive impacts on the economy that flow from business use of broadband.
"The ACCC will continue to monitor the broadband market, looking particularly closely at any behaviour by those with market power to stifle competition through high prices or by holding back access to new services".