Australians spending up to $18.1B on telco services

The total revenue from retail telecommunications services is up to 18.1 billion dollars during 2005-2006, according to the latest Telecommunications Market Indicator Report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The ACCC’s report compiles revenue, usage and market share numbers from Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, Primus and AAPT for the 2005-06 financial year using information extracted by the Regulatory Accounting Framework.

According to the report total revenue from retail telecommunications services increased to $18.1 billion in 2005-06. Revenues and the usage of Internet and mobile services increased again in 2005-06, while revenue and usage from PSTN services decreased.

Market share has remained mostly steady with Telstra retaining roughly 60 percent of overall revenues for services covered in this report. Optus increased its overall share to 26 percent in 2005-06 while other carriers accounted for about 13 percent.

The report states the total revenue from PSTN services for Telstra, Optus, Primus and AAPT fell from $8.8 billion in 2004-05 to $8.1 billion in 2005-06, a fall of 7.8 percent. PSTN revenues fell across all retail services including, for the first time, for end-user access services. PSTN market shares remained steady, with Telstra retaining a high proportion of PSTN revenues across all services.

While the usage of PSTN services, with the exception of fixed-to-mobile calls, also declined. The small increase in fixed-to-mobile calls, coupled with a decline in revenues, represent a fall in yields for carriers and lower average prices for consumers.

Also the total revenue from retail mobile services increased by 4.5 percent to $7.8 billion, while the total number of services in operation (SIO) increased to 17.56 million in 2005-06 an increase of 15.6 percent on the previous year. Similarly total minutes continued to increase, with carriers reporting over 19 billion voice minutes in 2005-06. Market shares in the mobile market altered slightly with Telstra’s revenue from mobile services decreasing marginally (by less than 0.1percent) to $3.491 billion while Optus and Vodafone both reported slight improvements in market share for revenues and services in operation (SIO).

According to the ACCC the total revenue from internet services including dial-up, cable and ADSL increased by 32.5 percent in 2005-06 to $2.16 billion with revenues from ADSL services increasing by 85 percent to $807 million.