Australian broadband third most expensive in OECD

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 20 May 2009 20:10

IT Industry - Strategy

Australia has the third most expensive broadband services in the OECD, and an over-quota data prices an order of magnitude higher than any other OECD member, according to its latest broadband statistics

Adjusted for purchasing power parity, Australia came in with an average monthly price of $US56.21 per month, exceeded only by Mexico ($US59.52) and the Slovak Republic ($US78.85). Cheapest was Sweden at $US29.22 followed by Greece at $30.06.

The OECD reported that "The percentage of offers with explicit data limits/bit caps is declining across the OECD. In September 2006 only 36 percent of observed plans had an explicit data cap." And it said "If users go over the cap they pay an average of $US0.02 per additional megabyte on DSL and $US0.03 on cable networks." Surprisingly the over-cap price for wireless data, averaged across the OECD, was less than either cable or DSL, being only $US0.009 per Mbyte.

On this measure Australia is an order of magnitude more expensive than any other OECD member. Average price per megabyte after the data cap is exceeded was $US0.103 cents in October 2008. The second most expensive was Ireland at just $US0.018.

The figures come from the latest OECD official broadband statistics for December 2008. Overall, the OECD has identified a significant increase in the number of fibre based services, and a significant decrease in prices.

According to the OECD, the number of broadband subscriptions grew 13 percent during 2008 taking the total in OECD member economies to 267 million in December 2008, 22.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. "The economic crisis has not significantly slowed broadband adoption. In fact, broadband growth during the last six months of the year was slightly stronger at 6.23 percent than in the first six months at 6.16 percent," The OECD said.

The strongest per-capita subscriber growth over the year was in the Slovak Republic, Greece, New Zealand and Norway, Germany, France and the United States. Each country added more than three subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The average increase across the OECD was 2.5 subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

The OECD reports that fibre subscriptions now comprise 10 percent of all broadband connections in the OECD (up from nine percent in June 2008). Fibre is the dominant connection technology in Korea and Japan and now accounts for 48 percent of all Japanese broadband subscriptions and 43 percent in Korea. Korea has the highest fibre penetration rate per capita at 13.8 fibre subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Korea also has by far the cheapest broadband services in the OECD, an order of magnitude below the average. "On average, subscribers in OECD countries pay 15 times more per advertised megabit of connectivity than Koreans," the OECD reports.