Broadband internet downloads on the brink of an exabyte of data, but the future looks mobile

We’ve heard if often enough, but now the numbers are in: The future is mobile if data from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey is anything to go by.

The latest statistics show that Australia’s 20.6 million mobile handset subscribers downloaded 38,734 terabytes for the three months ended 30 June 2014, a 40% increase from the three months ended 31 December 2013. This equates to 0.6 GB of data downloaded per mobile subscriber per month.

On the broadband front, Australians downloaded nearly a million terabytes – about one exabyte of data in the three months to June this year.

“Overall, there was a 16% increase on broadband downloads in the three months to December last year,” said Lesley Martin from the ABS. “But if you look solely at mobile handsets, then downloads jumped by 40%.”

“Our total download volume for the three months was 996,160 terabytes via broadband, and 38,734 terabytes via mobile handset.”

“Exactly five years ago, for the three months ended June 2009, we were just about to hit 100,000 terabytes of downloads, so today’s result makes a tenfold increase in just five years.”

“The increase reflects the dominance of broadband, Australia’s continuing appetite for the internet and particularly the swing towards higher download speeds,” said Martin.

The survey also found that two-thirds of broadband subscribers had download speeds of eight Mbps or greater, and that mobile wireless is the most prevalent internet technology in Australia, accounting for half of all connections.

Further information is available in Internet Activity, Australia, June 2014, available for free download from www.abs.gov.au.