By Craig Zammit
SYDNEY: The latest Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Snapshot of Broadband Deployment report has recorded that 3,639,700 Australians were connected as of 30 September 2006, meaning the market for broadband modems is still booming.
“The September quarter showed an increase of more than one million customers, or 51.2 per cent, over the preceding 12-month period,” said ACCC commissioner, Ed Willett.
This growth continues a trend observed since March 2005 where Australia had 1,776,800 broadband connections.
“Since the entry of a number of new competitors and lower retail prices for broadband services in early 2004, there has been a notable increase in broadband take-up. For example, since the March quarter 2004, take-up of broadband services has increased by more than 400 per cent,” said Willett.
“However, as we would expect, in annual terms the percentage growth of take-up has declined given the increase of the total subscriber base in absolute terms.”
DSL-based services remain the most popular type of broadband adopted by Australians, with approximately three-quarters of all broadband service connections attributable to DSL services.