statistics

This page offers selected statistics about connectivity and the telecommunications industry in Australia and New Zealand.

It covers -

• the industry
• devices
• subscribers
• traffic
• points of reference
• graphs

     the industry

As of 2000/1 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) considered that there were around 814 businesses in the telecommunications sector within Australia, with overall employment of around 77,275 people.

The ABS estimated the overall income of those enterprises at $31,505 million, with $26,661 million expenses and operating profit before tax of $4,954 million. Total assets were around $55,898 million.

As points of reference Cisco's market capitalisation reached US$555 billion (almost half the annual GDP of France) in March 1999 and AOL-Time Warner announced losses of US$54.2 billion for the first quarter of 2002.

     devices

In 2001 Australia had around 21.29 million fixed-line phones (ie 1.09 handsets per capita) and 11.17 million mobile phones (0.57 per capita). By December 2002 that had increased to 12.5 million mobile phone subscriptions (up from 6 million in 1999).

An estimated 83% of all Australian households at that time were within five kilometres of an exchange.

New Zealand had 4.11 million fixed phones (1.07 per capita) and 2.28 million mobiles.

     subscribers

At the end of September 2003 the ABS estimates that the number of internet subscribers in Australia was over 5.2 million (an increase of 135,000 from the end of March 2003 following increases of 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 in the six months to September 2003, falling 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. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) subscriber numbers rose from 209,000 in the March quarter 2003 to 372,000 in the September quarter of that year.

There were 667 ISPs at that time: as noted earlier in this profile many of those bodies were very small and of uncertain viability. The ABS July 2005 Internet Activity Survey (IAS) featured results from all ISPs identified by the ABS as operating in Australia as at 31 March 2005. Continuing volatility among ISPs - the ABS recognised 689 ISPs supplying internet connectivity to 5.98 million active subscribers - saw a 5% increase in the number of 'Very Small' ISPs, those ISPs with fewer than 101 subscribers. The category accounted for only 0.1% of total subscribers (and 0.4% of total data downloaded).

Many of those entities are 'virtual' ISPs, using infrastructure and services provided by the dominant players, whose market share continues to increase. Ongoing consolidation and departures saw further decreases in the number of 'Small' (up to 1,000 subscribers) and 'Large' (up to 100,000 subscribers) ISPs. There were 10 ISPs with over 100,000 subscribers at the end of the 2005 March quarter.

In New Zealand there were around 1.24 million subscribers at the end of March 2005, according to Statistics New Zealand. They were serviced by 66 ISPs. Residential subscribers accounted for 80% of that figure and provided 63% of the revenue. Business and government users were 20% of the total number of subscribers, providing 37% of the revenue.

There were 30 ISP subscribers per 100 inhabitants in New Zealand, compaed with Australia's 29 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. New Zealand had 11 non-analogue active subscribers per 100 inhabitants (Australia had nine).

     broadband

In July 2004 the number of broadband connections in Australia supposedly reached 1 million, with Telstra claiming 750,000 broadband connections (including those who connect to other ISPs using its ADSL network) and Optus claiming 247,000 on its cable network and via phone lines.

At that time the ABS reported that

• the number of non dial-up subscribers grew from 690,000 at the end of the September quarter 2003 to 861,000 at the end of the March quarter 2004, reflecting a continuing move to broadband technologies.
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) subscriber numbers grew from 372,000 to 512,000 during the same period.
• data downloaded by subscribers during the March quarter 2004 increased by 37% from 4,665 million MBs to 6,409 million MBs - non dial-up subscribers increased their usage by 53% and accounted for over 75% of the total data downloaded whilst dial-up subscribers increased their downloads by just 5%.

The ABS July 2005 Internet Activity Survey (IAS) featured results from all ISPs identified by the ABS as operating in Australia as at 31 March 2005.

It suggested that the total number of internet subscribers at that time was 5.98 million, an increase of 239,000 (4%) from the end of September 2004. The increase in overall subscriber numbers was attributable to growth in "non dial-up" - primarily broadband - subscribers, up 39% from 1.3 million in September 2004 to 1.8 million at the end of March 2005.

Non dial-up subscribers represented 30% of total internet subscribers in Australia at the end of March 2005. Most of the growth for non dial-up was in the household subscriber sector, with a 42% increase in household broadband subscribers since the end of September 2004 (to around 1.4 million). The overall number of dial-up subscribers continued to decline, down to 4.2 million.

Around 550 ISPs provided connectivity using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. Data downloading by subscribers during the quarter continued to increase, up 28% to 14,124 million MBs. Broadband subscribers accounted for almost 87% of the total data downloaded.

The September 2005 Snapshot of Broadband Deployment report from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) claimed that the number of broadband services in Australia wasclose to 2.2 million, an increase of over 1 million customers over the preceding year. ADSL accounted for 1.5 million broadband connections in the June 2005 quarter.

As of March 2005 analogue was the predominant connection mechanism in New Zealand, accounting for with 800,000 subscribers (65%). DSL was the most common mechanism within the 440,000 non-analogue subscribers.

800,000 subscribers had a download speed of less than 64 kbps. Among the non-analogue subscribers a download speed of 64kbps to 128kbps was the most common.

     points of reference

Overseas statistics as points of reference are highlighted here.

     graphs

A range of graphs about telecommunications in Australia and New Zealand are here (PDF). For devices see the graphs here (PDF).







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