Internet Industry Association launches broadband service tracker

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:36

Your IT - Home IT

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) has launched has launched a quarterly tracker of the price, value and availability of residential broadband services that will allow it to track progress towards its 2010 broadband targets.

The IIA, in July 2006 issued a set of aspirational targets  for both fixed and mobile broadband in order to provoke national discussion on how to achieve adequate broadband provision in Australia. The targets were based on comparisons of broadband availability in other countries, the current status of broadband provision in Australia, the projected level of future demand for bandwidth and the range of technologies likely to be deployed in the next four years

The targets stated that 80 percent of Australians should have access to 10Mbps downstream services and 1Mbps upstream services by 2010 and that 67 percent of Australians should have access to 24Mbps downstream services by 2010.

The quarterly index has been created for the IIA by Spectrum Strategy Consultants. It tracks all of the Internet access plans offered by five major Australian ISPs (Telstra, Optus, Primus, iiNet and Unwired) and calculates the average total monthly cost of subscribing to each of them.

These five providers collectively service over 75 percent of broadband users, and Spectrum says that while other broadband providers offer different and possibly higher value plans, "we believe that the market leaders will largely determine the competitive climate in which offerings are made to consumers."

The first edition of the index shows that prices in the second half of 2006 were flat. Average broadband costs fell around only one percent between Q2 2006 and Q4 2006. It also showed that broadband usage levels are a driver of the total cost of broadband than access speeds.

At lower access speeds, operators offer multiple plans with no single provider dominating in terms of best value offered, suggesting that the market has reached a plateau based on current wholesale pricing. However, at higher access speeds, choice is more constrained, with fewer standalone plans on offer. Plans are more likely to be tied to the take up of telephony services.

The Launch Edition of the Spectrum / IIA Index can be downloaded from www.iia.net.au or www.spectrumstrategy.com.