Australia - 3G largely unused

3G services largely unused: report

A third of Australian consumers own a 3G-capable phone but two thirds of these do not use the available 3G services, a new report from the Australian Communications and Media Authority has revealed.

Half of those who owned a 3G phone but did not use the 3G services - which include mobile internet, video calling and music streaming - had no interest in them. Others cited high costs and lack of knowledge on how to access the services.

The report, part of ACMA's Telecommunications Today series, also found 90 per cent of households have both a fixed-line phone and a mobile phone, but almost half preferred to use mobiles as their main calling method.

The move away from fixed lines is set to pick up pace as mobile calls continue to drop in price; consumers indicated cost was a key reason for them keeping their landline. New broadband internet services such as naked DSL allow people to subscribe to ADSL without also paying landline rental fees.

ACMA also reported that while take up of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone services is low - only one in five households with internet access have used a VoIP service - a quarter of households indicated they would consider replacing their fixed-line services with other forms of voice communications.

Last week, ACMA said the number of mobile phones in use in Australia now exceeds the nation's population.

3G phones were most common among respondents aged between 18 and 24 (43 per cent are on 3G), whereas the take up rate among those over 61 was just 12 per cent.

Mark Novosel, telecommunications market analyst at IDC, agreed with ACMA's findings that the low use of 3G services among those with 3G-capable mobiles was due to lack of knowledge and the historically high costs.

"Some people wouldn't even know if they're on 3G or not ... they want an [Nokia] N95 because it can play videos or has a good camera - they get a 3G phone for the features not for the fact that it's 3G," he said.

"Other people will be put off by the cost - the pricing is very confusing and there's a lot of different options from the carriers."

But Novosel said prices had come significantly from two years ago, when users paid $20 for just 1MB of data. Now, 100MB can be had for around $12, and there are broadband-style bundles, such as Three's X Series, which offers 2GB of data for $40 a month.