More than half of Australia's internet users want faster broadband speeds, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
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There were approximately 13.5 million internet subscribers in Australia at the end of December 2016, the majority (56.1%) of broadband internet subscribers were connected with speeds of '24Mbps to 100Mbps'.
Internet Australia (IA) has drawn attention to the latest ABS report and called on the LNP government to admit they got their NBN strategy wrong.
"The ABS report clearly shows the need for fast broadband is here. It also highlights the fact that for many Australians, those on the inferior fibre to the node (FTTN) version, the NBN will prove to be a big disappointment in years to come", IA's executive chair, Anne Hurley said.
"There is a 'digital divide' being created by NBN Co, with nearly half its customers stuck with FTTN, which uses Telstra's ageing copper wires, and therefore unable to enjoy the faster (gigabit) speeds they want.”
Tech savvy Young resident Bill Yeomans said people want and expect the NBN to be faster, but that's not what their being sold.
“People connect expecting a higher speed, and at entry level, this isn't happening, then they need to pay more per month to get the speed expected,” he said.
“The "Boost" 25/5 should have been the base and entry level, also people need to realise that if they are accessing and downloading from a slow site, a higher speed isn't going to improve download speeds at all.”
In February, NBN boss Bill Morrow said that Australians don't want super fast internet and wouldn't use it "even if we offered it for free".
But the latest statistics from the ABS show more than seven million internet users subscribe to internet speeds of 24Mbps up to 100Mbps and 286,000 subscribers have chosen 100Mbps or greater.
Minister for Regional Communications Fiona Nash would not comment on IA's claims but did say that Mr Morrow's comments were a matter for NBN co to deal with.