CANBERRA – Aussie telecoms users in receipt of their latest bill may be surprised to know they are paying almost 20 percent less for most telecommunications services than they did six years ago. But wireless services are on the way up.Those are among the findings in the Australian Competion and Consumer Commission’s Telecommunications Reports 2011-12, just released by the ACCC.
The general rate of decline has slowed dramatically in recent times, falling just 2.2 percent in 2011-12, the ACCC reports.
The cost of Internet services has fallen 20 percent from 2006-07 levels, the report adds, and fell 2.7pc in 2011-12DSL prices fell 5.87 percent in 2011-12, and have dropped 15.6 percent since 2006-07.
“A trend is clearly forming with smaller price falls each year since the index fell 18.5 percent in 200809,” the ACCC report says.
Meanwhile real prices for wireless Internet services have taken the opposite tack, increasing 1.7 percent in 2011-12 after significant falls in previous years – apparently reflecting the carriers’ reaction to the challenge of rapid traffic growth and the emerging risks of network congestion.
It suggests the turnaround in prices may reflect carriers’ response to the challenge of rapid traffic growth and the associated risk of network congestion.Data downloads are on the increase at quite a pace, the report notes.
Download volumes jumped 76 percent in 2010-11 and another 51 percent in 2011-12 – while, to no-one’s great surprise given mobile charging regimes for data, nearly all downloads (94pc) were made via fixed line connections.
To deal with the growing flood, ACCC chairman Rod Sims has urged service providers to “invest in more capacity, adjust pricing or encourage their customers to shift their usage to less busy times.’
