Australian consumers are reaping the benefits of competition in the telecommunications sector in the form of increased data allowances, new services, and lower prices, according to a report from competition regulator ACCC.
“Consistent with the trend in recent years, consumer demand for data is continuing to increase and is affecting both fixed and mobile networks. On fixed networks, data consumption grew by 40% to 1.3 million terabytes (TB) of data. On mobile networks, data consumption increased by 35% to 110,000 TB,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.
“The increase in demand for data is largely due to the popularity of audio-visual streaming services, including the introduction of subscription video on demand (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Presto, and Stan.
Industry members have responded to the increase in demand by investing in their fixed and mobile networks to make sure that they have sufficient capacity to meet the data traffic.
Service providers have also responded by increasing data allowances. During 2014-15, data allowances increased by over 70% for DSL internet services and more than doubled for post-paid mobile services.
At the same time, overall prices fell by 0.5% in real terms from 2014 to 2015.
“While a smaller reduction than in the previous eight years, which has seen a 3.3% fall each year on average, this indicates that competition on factors other than price has been a feature of the market,” Sims said.
“Given this, the ACCC will continue to take a particular interest in ensuring consumers receive accurate information about network performance.”