Australians have taken up mobile internet with unbridled gusto, with nearly half the population (49 per cent) owning a mobile phone connected to the internet.

 

The Australian Communication and Media Authority's Communications report 2011-12 shows that Australians are prolific downloaders, with the country downloading 421,147 terabytes over the yearly period, a massive 52 per cent increase on last year and the vast majority of downloads (92 per cent) uses fixed broadband.

 

Nearly half of us (10.8 million) went online at least daily, with the typical Aussie spending 82 hours a month on the internet.

 

‘Mobile and internet services are driving growth in the digital economy. Australians are increasingly connected, adopting whichever devices best meet their needs,’ said ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman.

 

Other report highlights include:

  • Australians mostly communicate using mobile phones (48 per cent), followed by fixed-line phones (22 per cent) and email (21 per cent)
  • there are 30.2 million mobile services in use across the country—four for every three people
  • the number of mobile users without a fixed-line telephone grew by 24 per cent to 3.1 million
  • four out of 10 internet users spend more than 15 hours online a week.

 

The full report can be found here