ABS: Wireless Internet subs almost doubled in 2008

Wireless Internet connections across the country almost doubled in the past six months, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released Monday.

Wireless broadband subscriptions saw a 90 per cent growth at the end of June 2008, and wireless broadband accounted for 14 percent (809,000) of all Australian subscriptions, up by 376 000 from December 2007.

The ABS statistics also show that as of June there were 7.2 million active Internet subscribers in Australia: 6.2 million household subscribers and 1.0 million from business and government.

Australia now boasts 5.7 million broadband subscribers, just fewer than 80 per cent of the total number of Internet subscribers. DSL, ADSL, xDSL was used by almost four million broadband subscribers.

Australian broadband subscribers are also continuing to choose faster connections, as those with a connection speed of 1.5Mbps or greater increased to 3.1 million, up 8 per cent from December 2007.