By Trevor Clarke
Computerworld Australia
December 17, 2009

SYDNEY - The number of households with access to broadband internet shot up 18 per cent to 5 million in the 2008-09 financial year according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The result means there was an increase of 700,000 households over the previous financial year and takes the total percentage of households with a broadband connection to 62 percent.

Over the last decade the number of homes with internet access has risen from 16 per cent to 72 per cent with a similar increase in access to computers (44 per cent to 78 per cent).

The ACT was the most connected geography with 74 per cent of households having broadband access while Tasmania was the least with only 49 per cent.

The ABS defines broadband as “an ‘always on’ Internet connection with an access speed equal to or greater than 256 kbps”.

An additional ABS survey, the 2009 Children’s Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, found 79 per cent of kids aged 5 to 14 used the Internet with the home being the most common place.

Three per cent of children who accessed the Internet, or 72,000, reported a “personal safety or security problem” as having occurred.

The full results can be found on the ABS website.

In August, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced that mobile broadband users in Australia pay more than in any other country.

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