TAG | Wow, more mobile phones in Australia than Aussies! |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Tuesday, 29 April 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 2 They tell us that by June 30 last year there were 21.26 million active mobile connections – up 7.6% from the same time in 2006. What drove the growth? 3G mobile customers – while fixed line services slowly kept declining “over the last financial year”. Chris Chapman, ACMA Chairman said in relation to 3G mobile connections that: “There are now more than 4.5 million 3G mobile services in Australia, a 192% increase between 30 June 2006 and 30 June 2007”. Could there be any better reason for Apple to hurry up and introduce a 3G iPhone in Australia? I think not. ACMA’s report was tabled in Australia’s Federal Parliament by the Minister for Communications. Senator Stephen Conro, and it “provides a comprehensive overview of changes in the communications industry” – well, up until June 30 2007, at any rate – nearly one year has passed since then, if only government agencies could work a bit faster, although I’m sure that’s expecting just a tad too much from them. Anyway, the number of “fixed services dropped from 11.26 million to 10.92 million between 30 June 2006 and 30 June 2007”. For those who still rely upon payphones – the news isn’t good. The total number, whether operated by Telstra or by private operators, fell to only 49,862 – that’s 8,368 lower than in 2006. Although nearly a million new geographic numbers were allocated by ACMA in 2005-2006, not all of those were for VoIP. But In 2006-07, geographic numbers were “predominantly allocated for VoIP services” – 2.89 million out of a total 3.23 million, showing that VoIP surely is going gangbusters in Australia, just as elsewhere in the world. The report notes that “this increase is a sign of competition and the entry of new VoIP providers into the Australian market requiring a supply of numbers for services across the country.” So, what about Internet subscribers? Please read onto page 2. |
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