Media Release: NBN underpins growth in Australia’s data demand

The Morrison Government welcomes today’s release of NBN Co’s network insights, which show continued growth in data consumed by Australians on the National Broadband Network (NBN), and underlines its important role as the nation’s backbone for fast, reliable internet access.

NBN Co reports that Australia’s data consumption on the NBN has risen by almost 25 per cent in the last 12 months, with households and businesses across Australia averaging data downloads of 258 gigabytes (GB) per month, up from an average of 208GB per month in 2018.

Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher, said the findings demonstrate the network’s strong capacity to meet the broadband needs of Australians now and into the future.

“NBN Co’s key insights show the NBN is supporting Australia’s growing appetite for data. The network is supporting an explosion in Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services with video streaming making up the largest share of data downloads on the NBN. Importantly, the ability of the network to support applications with high data requirements also enables services including distance education and telemedicine,” Minister Fletcher said.

Key insights include:

• Monthly data consumption on the NBN has increased by 820 per cent between December 2012 and June 2019
• In June this year Australians downloaded more than 1.35 billion GB of data
• The split between metropolitan and regional areas was almost even with 52 per cent of data consumed in metropolitan areas and 48 per cent in regional areas.
• Data downloads are highest during the January and April school holiday periods, while Wednesdays and Sundays see the largest downloads week-to-week.
• Real time video streaming is the leading activity for data downloads, followed by web browsing. 

“In regional Australia, the average monthly data is 246GBs, compared to 270GB in metropolitan areas. This indicates the faster, more reliable broadband delivered by the NBN is helping Australians access more data, wherever they live,” Minister Fletcher said. 

Almost 90 per cent of Australians are now able to connect to NBN high-speed broadband, with the company remaining on track to complete its build phase next year.

Following network completion, all Australian households and businesses will have access to broadband speeds of at least 25 Mbps and 90 per cent of fixed line households will be able to receive 50 Mbps services.

For more information on the NBN rollout visit: www.nbnco.com.au