Australians Over Spending On Broadband Connections By $141million

Online, May 24, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The iSelect Broadband Report released today shows that internet is really catching up fast in Australia. At the same time, the Report also reveals that Australians are spending more than they actually should on broadband connections.

One part of the report shows that presently there are 7.5 million broadband subscribers, which is an increase of almost 1 million in a year. The other part relates to over-spending; Australians are spending $141 million more simply because they fail to review broadband plans offered by service providers.

Read together, this clearly indicates that people are more eager to go online than they are to devote time to understand what they actually need.

The iSelect Broadband Reports' conclusions are based on figures relating to subscriber base and usage. Almost half, 48% to be exact, of Australian households have a broadband connection with three or more people using it to access the internet. What is interesting is that Australians, regardless of age, rate internet higher as a technological tool than television.

The Report shows that 368 million gigabytes of data is downloaded nationally every month. This boils down to 48 GB per household per month. Just to give you an idea, this means that on an average each subscriber household downloads data equal to 20 movies and 2,000 songs every month.

The Report highlights the importance that Internet has assumed for Australians across all age groups. People are relying on the Internet to communicate with friends and relatives. More elderly have an online presence than ever before for interacting through social media sites and entertainment.

What is ironical however is that despite claims that they have a good knowledge of how to access the internet and use it there seems to be total indifference towards understanding technical aspects such as download and upload speeds and how much data they actually need.

That Australians seem to care little about how understanding what they are paying for is supported by figures returned by the Report. 83% of those who participated in the survey claimed that they had full knowledge of how to access and use the internet but only 59% admitted that they knew little or nothing about different broadband packages on offer. This, more than anything else, is the reason why Australians are over-spending and signing up for broadband packages that they really do not need. Those who do not restrict themselves to the monthly data allowance are spending $200 per year extra.

This is also supported by the fact that 25% of the participants said that they do not keep track of the data they download and 33% do not even bother to check whether they are exceeding data allowance. While a vast majority of subscribers (86%) know that the speed of the broadband connection is crucial, 76% of them had no idea about how it was measured.

Technology expert and blogger, Charlie Brown is of the opinion that Australians need to devote time to research broadband packages before signing a contract. The right way, according to him is to do an online comparison and evaluate plans. Simply stated, Australians need to know what they need and avoid paying for what they do not need.
The bottom line is that considering costs is as important as reliability and maintaining connection. The sad part is that the Report reveals that 66% want a reliable connection but only 36% pay attention to the data downloads, which affects cost more.

Mathew Cuming, Corporate Affairs Manager at iSelect, concludes by saying that the Report indicates that broadband now plays an important role in the lives of most Australians. However, according to him, instead of feeling powerless on going over monthly data downloads; they need to "become as active in shopping around online for the right plan, as they are when it comes to using Facebook, email and downloading music and movies."