Aussies wasting $141 million a year on broadband plans: report

Stan Beer
Monday, 23 May 2011 14:15

Your IT - Home IT

Australian broadband consumers are blowing $141 million a year by overpaying for broadband services, according to a new report. The report claims that, the issue is broadband consumers in Australia don't have access to the information to  understand what they need.

Research released today in the iSelect Broadband Report, claims Australia is in the midst of an internet explosion, yet broadband consumers are over-spending on their connections by $141 million through a lack of understanding of what they really need.

According to iSelect, which has recently expanded from health insurance to broadband comparisons, over 7.5 million Australian households subscribe to broadband internet, a jump of almost a million in 12 months. In their enthusiasm to do more online however, Australians are failing to review and update their plans to meet their changing needs.

The iSelect Broadband Report shows broadband is booming in Australia - Australians are on average downloading more than 48 gigabytes of data per household per month (the equivalent of approximately 20 movies and 2000 songs), or a massive 368 petabytes nationally per month.

According to the report, more than half of Australians across all age groups rate the internet as the single most important piece of technology in their home, ahead of television.. Entire families are now online, with three or more people accessing the internet in almost half of Australian households (48 per cent). Yet over half (59 per cent) of those surveyed admitted they did little or no research into different broadband services before choosing a broadband package.

The Report claims Australians are confused about what they are paying for, despite rating themselves highly on their 'internet intelligence', with 83 per cent reporting they have a good or very good understanding of the internet at home. Those who go over their monthly data allowance are spending on average almost $200 a year extra for the privilege.

According to technology blogger, Charlie Brown, the Report highlights how active Australians of all ages are online.

'More Australians than ever before are connecting with each other via the internet. This research found that two thirds of Australians now rely on the internet to keep in touch with their relatives and friends, and social media is growing at a rapid pace, even amongst older internet users.'

'However, in contrast with the heightened status of broadband internet in the home, Australians aren't researching their choice of plans properly. There is a lack of understanding of the more technical details such as connection speeds and how much data they actually need, leading to consumers signing up to plans that don't fulfil their needs,' he said.

According to the report,  quarter of Australians don't know how much data they download each month, and consistent with this, a third never check how much of their download limit they have used. Less than a quarter (24 per cent) understand how the speed of their broadband connection is measured (megabits per second), yet 86 per cent say speed is very or extremely important to them.

'Australians need to do their homework on broadband before signing up to a new contract. It doesn't need to be time consuming or difficult - if you use an online comparison service, you can evaluate plans based on your actual needs to find the best one for you,' said Brown.

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