Surge in broadband connections: ACCC

Almost three million Australians are now connected to broadband services, the ACCC has found.

Its latest "Snapshot of Broadband Deployment" found there were 2,785,000 broadband services connected across Australia. Of these, more than two million were ADSL connections.

ACCC Commissioner, Ed Willett, said total quarterly growth in broadband was 12.1 per cent for the December 2005 quarter.

“Last year saw the take-up of broadband services increase by 85 per cent, which amounted to an increase of over 1.25 million customers," said Willet. "These results complete the overall trend of consistent growth in broadband take-up throughout 2005.”

He also said in 2005, the take-up of DSL broadband exhibited the strongest growth. However, there was also steady growth in the take-up of broadband delivered by other technologies, including satellite and cable.

“There are also signs that take-up of wireless broadband services is beginning to increase, albeit off a limited base,” said Willet.