Internet in Australia

Academic networks and the first permanent Internet connection

Australian computer networking predated the country's connection to the Internet. From the mid-1970s, computer-science departments at Australian universities developed the Australian Computer Science Network (ACSNet), which used dial-up, store-and-forward technologies to exchange files and electronic mail. It later carried Usenet traffic and used the .oz domain. The .au country-code top-level domain was delegated to University of Melbourne network programmer Robert Elz in March 1986, before Australia had a permanent Internet connection.

The Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee decided in 1988 to develop a national academic network, and the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet) was established in 1989. On 23 June 1989, Robert Elz opened Australia's first permanent TCP/IP Internet connection at the University of Melbourne, using a dedicated satellite circuit to the University of Hawaii. AARNet subsequently extended the Internet feed to Australian universities and research institutions; most universities and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation were connected by May 1990.

Public access and commercialisation

Accounts of Australia's first public or commercial Internet provider differ because early services did not all provide a permanent, full-IP connection. The founder of Pegasus Networks reported offering public dial-up email and newsgroup access from 1989, while the principals of Perth-based DIALix reported offering similar commercial services before obtaining a full IP connection around 1992. The Australian Bureau of Statistics identified connect.com.au, which commenced operation in 1992, as Australia's first commercial Internet provider.

Commercial access expanded after AARNet introduced a formal value-added reseller program in May 1994. In July 1995, the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee transferred AARNet's commercial customers, associated assets and management of interstate and international links to Telstra. The wider telecommunications market was opened to full competition when the Telecommunications Act 1997 and related legislation took effect on 1 July 1997.

Telstra began rolling out a hybrid fibre-coaxial network in 1994, followed by Optus in 1995. The networks covered parts of the major capital cities and were used for pay television, telephony and broadband services. Local interconnection also developed: the Western Australian Internet Association, now the Internet Association of Australia, established the Western Australian Internet Exchange (WA-IX) in 1997 so that participating networks could exchange traffic locally.

Consumer broadband

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued a declaration dated 4 August 1999 establishing regulated access to the unconditioned local loop service, the copper pairs connecting premises to points of interconnection in the local telephone network. Telstra began its consumer ADSL rollout on 21 August 2000. The number of DSL subscriptions increased from approximately 6,000 in September 2000 to 27,000 in March 2001.

By September 2006, Australia had approximately 3.9 million broadband subscriptions and 2.7 million dial-up subscriptions. Wireless broadband expanded rapidly later in the decade: the ABS recorded 1.46 million wireless broadband subscriptions in December 2008, approximately three times the number recorded a year earlier.

National Broadband Network

In April 2009, after an expert panel concluded that none of the proposals submitted through an earlier tender process offered a satisfactory value-for-money outcome, the Australian Government announced that a new government-owned company would build and operate the National Broadband Network (NBN). The 2009 proposal was for a wholesale-only, open-access network, initially using fibre to the premises for 90 per cent of premises, later increased to 93 per cent, with fixed wireless and satellite services elsewhere.

Following the change of government in 2013, a revised Statement of Expectations issued in April 2014 directed NBN Co to move from a predominantly FTTP design to an area-by-area Multi-Technology Mix that used existing infrastructure, including fibre to the node, fibre to the building and HFC.

On 11 December 2020, the communications minister declared that the NBN should be treated as built and fully operational for the purposes of the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011. Expansion and technology-upgrade programs continued after that declaration, including large-scale upgrades from copper-based FTTN and FTTC services to FTTP.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reports the number of telecommunications services in operation (SIOs), rather than unique subscribers, households or people. A person or household may have multiple fixed, mobile and data-only services; the categories below therefore cannot be added together to estimate the number of Australians using the internet.

At 30 June 2025, the principal reported service categories were:

Wholesale consumer NBN fixed-line and fixed-wireless services increased by 0.13% during 2024, 25, indicating that the total number of active NBN services had largely stabilised. The ACCC estimated that Telstra supplied 34% of consumer NBN services in June 2025, followed by TPG Telecom with 18% and Optus with 12%, while Aussie Broadband, Vocus and Superloop together accounted for approximately 18%. The share of NBN fixed-line services on wholesale speed tiers of 250 Mbit/s or faster increased from 2.7% in June 2023 to 8.2% in June 2025, although the 50 Mbit/s tier remained the most widely used.

Outside the NBN, home wireless broadband grew by 18% in the year to June 2025, reaching 654,000 services. Home wireless broadband uses a mobile network and is distinct from Wi-Fi connected to a fixed-line service. In the satellite market, Starlink reported 375,000 Australian retail services in June 2025, compared with 250,000 publicly reported in July 2024. It accounted for 27% of the non-NBN retail broadband services captured by the ACCC. Over the same period, legacy DSL services declined to 89,000.

For the three months ending 30 June 2025, service providers reported the following download volumes. The ACCC describes these volumes as indicative and notes that figures may be revised when providers amend their returns.

Of the 7.299 million retail NBN services covered by the Internet Activity reporting rule, 6.894 million, or approximately 94.5%, were on plans without a data limit in June 2025.

Social trends

Internet use is nearly universal among Australian adults, although the devices and services used to access it have changed. In a weighted survey of 3,543 adults conducted in 2025, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) estimated that 99.7% had used a device to access the internet during the preceding six months.

ACMA's survey series shows increased reliance on mobile phones and internet-connected televisions between 2017 and 2025. The average number of devices used to access the internet increased from 3.0 to 4.1. Respondents could report more than one device.

During 2025, 93.6% of adults surveyed accessed news or information online, 86.9% bought goods or services online, 75.2% accessed government services through an application, 57.8% used video calling or conferencing, 42.0% used telehealth and 41.9% worked online from home.

Near-universal recent internet use does not necessarily mean that users have affordable connections, suitable devices or the skills needed to participate fully online. The 2025 Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII), based primarily on data collected in 2024, measures digital inclusion across access, affordability and digital ability. It gave Australia an overall score of 73.6 and classified 20.6% of Australians as digitally excluded or highly excluded, including 9.2% classified as highly excluded. It also found that 9.7% relied solely on a mobile connection, 1.8% had no connection and 19.4% compromised on connection speed or data allowance to make their internet service affordable.

The ADII also found a 5.9-point digital-inclusion gap between capital cities and the rest of Australia. Scores ranged from 79.5 in the Australian Capital Territory to 69.4 in Tasmania, and generally declined with increasing remoteness.

Pricing

The ACCC monitors advertised retail prices for telecommunications services annually. Comparing June 2025 advertised prices with June 2024, monthly prices for NBN fixed-line broadband services increased across most plans in nominal terms, excluding discounts: low-range plans (25th percentile) rose 7 per cent, or $5, to $78 per month; the median plan rose 9 per cent, or $8, to $93 per month; and high-range plans (75th percentile) were unchanged at $105 per month. Changes to NBN Co's wholesale pricing brought higher speed tiers to lower price points while lower speed tiers rose, concentrating the majority of plans between $90 and $100 per month.

NBN Co increased its average wholesale pricing by 4.08 per cent for 2024, 25, and its residential average revenue per user rose from $47 per month in June 2024 to $50 per month in June 2025, reflecting a shift in the mix of services sold towards higher speed tiers.

Median advertised prices for mobile phone services rose 6.4 per cent, or $2.40 per month, between 2023, 24 and 2024, 25. Across the mobile network operators' flagship brands the median rose 7.3 per cent from $55 to $59 per month, while their sub-brands rose 16.7 per cent from $30 to $35 per month and mobile virtual network operator plans rose 2.9 per cent, or $1 per month.

Australian plans were historically characterised by data caps and excess usage charges. In October 2008, the OECD compared countries where more than 50% of offers had bitrate or data caps. Australia was one of four countries of the 13 with caps where 100% of plan options had download caps, and it ranked fourth in average download limit size (27 GB). It ranked number one by a wide margin in the average price per additional MB after reaching the cap, at US$0.103; the second highest was Ireland at US$0.018 per MB. In a sample comparison of 27 countries between 2005 and 2008 inclusive, the fastest DSL service was in Japan and Korea at 102,400 kbit/s, while Australia ranked fourth from the bottom at 1,536 kbit/s. Cable internet in Australia ranked third in greatest increase in speed, from 2,880 kbit/s in 2005 to 20,000 kbit/s in 2008. While all but two countries lowered their prices by an estimated average of 10% per year over that period, Australia raised its prices by an average of 14% per year.

Economic

Because internet-dependent production occurs across many industries, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) measures it using an experimental, economy-wide definition of "digital activity". This includes digital-enabling infrastructure, digital media and electronic commerce. In 2020, 21, the ABS estimated that digital activity contributed $118.0 billion, or 6.1% of aggregate value added in Australia. Digital activity increased by 7.8% during the year, compared with growth of 4.8% across the economy as a whole. The ABS described the estimate as a lower bound because some digitally enabled products, peer-to-peer transactions and international digital trade could not be separately identified in the available data.

A more recent but narrower measure is the information media and telecommunications industry. Its industry value added was $54.2 billion in 2024, 25, an increase of 8.2% from the previous financial year. The industry employed approximately 185,000 people at the end of June 2025, a decrease of 1.5%. These figures are not directly comparable with the broader digital-activity estimate, which also includes digital production and commerce occurring in other industries.

Internet connectivity is widely used throughout Australian business. In 2024, 25, more than 91% of businesses reported that their internet connection met most or all of their needs, while 32% received orders over the internet. The proportion of businesses reporting the use of artificial intelligence increased from 1% in 2021, 22 to 12% in 2024, 25.

Digital technologies also accounted for a substantial proportion of business research and development. Australian businesses spent $24.41 billion on research and experimental development in 2023, 24, of which $10.23 billion, or 42%, was directed towards information and computing sciences. Expenditure on artificial-intelligence research increased from $276 million in 2021, 22 to $668 million in 2023, 24.

Residential internet access

Fixed residential broadband in Australia is delivered predominantly over the National Broadband Network (NBN), a wholesale open-access network using fibre to the premises (FTTP), fibre to the node (FTTN), fibre to the building (FTTB), fibre to the curb (FTTC), hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC), fixed wireless and satellite technologies. Retail service providers purchase wholesale access from NBN Co and sell services to end users. Mobile network operators also offer 5G home broadband as an alternative to fixed-line connections in some areas.

Most residential ADSL services previously used Telstra's copper customer-access network, including services supplied by competing providers through wholesale or unbundled access. As NBN fixed-line rollout areas became ready for service, affected legacy landline and ADSL services were progressively disconnected, subject to specified exemptions.

NBN Co acquired much of Telstra's HFC network and selected elements of the Optus HFC network for incorporation into the NBN. Optus infrastructure not acquired by NBN Co was intended to be decommissioned or deactivated.

In September 2025, NBN Co increased the speeds of its higher wholesale tiers, available through participating retailers: the 100/20 Mbit/s tier was raised to 500/50 Mbit/s, the 250/25 Mbit/s tier to 750/50 Mbit/s, and the approximately 1000/50 Mbit/s tier to 1000/100 Mbit/s, alongside a 2 Gbit/s tier delivering 2000/200 Mbit/s over FTTP and 2000/100 Mbit/s over HFC. The accelerated tiers are available only over FTTP and HFC; premises served by FTTN, FTTB or FTTC cannot access them without a full-fibre upgrade.

Internet in rural areas

Internet access in Australia continues to differ between urban and rural areas, reflecting the larger distances and lower population densities that make fixed-line infrastructure costly to deploy. Premises outside the NBN fixed-line footprint may receive NBN fixed wireless or satellite services, while commercial low Earth orbit satellite services such as Starlink and 5G home broadband are available in some areas.

In August 2025, NBN Co and Amazon announced an agreement to develop an NBN wholesale low Earth orbit satellite service powered by Project Kuiper, subsequently renamed Amazon Leo. In February 2026, NBN Co opened an industry consultation on proposed wholesale speeds and pricing and said that testing and trials were expected to begin in the second half of 2026. By June 2026, NBN Co said that launch and rollout remained dependent on the availability of Amazon Leo satellite services and would proceed progressively as coverage and capacity became available. NBN Co expects its geostationary Sky Muster satellites to remain viable until approximately 2032 while customers transition to the new service.

International connectivity

Due to Australia's large size, sparse population, and distance from other countries, substantial infrastructure is required for international internet communications. In May 2026, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles stated that around 99 per cent of Australia's internet traffic travelled through 15 subsea cables.

IPv6

Adoption of IPv6 in Australia varies according to measurement methodology. A November 2024 analysis published by the APNIC reported that measurements from Akamai, APNIC, Cloudflare and Google placed Australian adoption from slightly above to well below the global average of approximately 40 per cent. Of Australia's 1,691 active networks, 417 - about one in four - had adopted IPv6. The analysis identified Telstra, Aussie Broadband, Superloop, Vodafone and Vocus as large providers that had enabled IPv6 for most customers, while Optus and TPG had not adopted it.

Online safety and content regulation

The Online Safety Act 2021, administered by the eSafety Commissioner, establishes federal regulatory schemes addressing online content and online harms. Under the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, the social-media minimum-age obligation took effect on 10 December 2025, requiring age-restricted social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from creating or retaining accounts. The eSafety Commissioner describes the requirement as world-first.

National Broadband Network

The National Broadband Network is Australia's wholesale open-access network for broadband, built as a multi-technology mix of FTTP, FTTN, FTTB, FTTC, HFC, fixed wireless and satellite. In December 2020, the Australian Government declared that the NBN should be treated as built and fully operational, although substantial fibre and fixed-wireless upgrade programs have continued since.

Under the Fibre Connect program, more than five million premises originally served by FTTN or FTTC have been made eligible to upgrade to FTTP. From 1 July 2026, NBN Co removed the requirement to order a high-speed plan in order to request a full-fibre upgrade, extending eligibility to all of the approximately 860,000 customers in the FTTC footprint.

Separately, in April 2026 NBN Co announced a limited Targeted Upgrade program to move selected premises in specific locations from legacy copper services to full fibre, aiming to upgrade approximately 130,000 homes and businesses in its first year. Affected premises are to begin receiving notifications from July 2027, and NBN Co has said that suspension of legacy copper services where no upgrade order has been placed is a measure of last resort, not expected before January 2028.

Premises outside the fixed-line footprint are served by NBN fixed wireless and satellite.

Cyber attacks

In 2016, the government released the cyber security strategy.

In June 2020 prime minister Scott Morrison revealed that Australian organisations, including governments and businesses, and key infrastructure were being targeted by a sophisticated foreign state-based hacker.

In January 2024, Russian hackers launched a major attack on Australian government departments and agencies. This attack, considered Australia's largest government cyberattack to date, resulted in the theft of 2.5 million documents from 65 different government entities. The hackers gained access by infiltrating an Australian law firm that worked with the government.

In 2024, 25, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) received over 84,700 cybercrime reports, an average of one report every six minutes, and responded to more than 1,200 cyber security incidents, an 11 per cent increase on the previous year. ASD answered more than 42,500 calls to the Australian Cyber Security Hotline, around 116 per day. The average self-reported cost of cybercrime per report rose 14 per cent to $56,600 for small business and 8 per cent to $33,000 for individuals.

In April 2025, several large Australian superannuation funds were targeted in a coordinated credential stuffing campaign using credentials previously exposed in unrelated breaches, affecting funds including AustralianSuper, Rest, Hostplus and Insignia Financial.

On 30 June 2025, Qantas detected unauthorised activity on a third-party platform used by one of its contact centres, and customer data was subsequently released by the attackers in July 2025. Qantas stated that no identity documents, credit card numbers or personal financial details were accessed, and that frequent flyer passwords, PINs and login details were not compromised; the airline obtained an injunction in the Supreme Court of New South Wales restraining further publication of the stolen data.

Australia is classified as Under Surveillance by Reporters without Borders from 2009 to present.

On 31 December 2007, Stephen Conroy announced the federal government's intention to censor "inappropriate material" from the Internet. Under the proposed system any Australian who subscribes to an ISP would receive a "clean" version of the Internet, with the stated aim of protecting children from accessing violent and pornographic websites. The plan was later abandoned.

Google's transparency report shows a consistent trend of growth in requests by Australian authorities for private information, constantly rising approximately 20% year-on-year. The most recent published volume for the period ending December 2013 indicates a volume of around four individual requests per calendar day.

Telstra's transparency report for the period 1 July - 31 December 2013 does not include requests by national security agencies, only police and other agencies. Nevertheless, in the six-month period 40,644 requests were made, 36,053 for "Telstra customer information, carriage service records and pre-warrant checks" (name, address, date of birth, service number, call/SMS/internet records. Call records include called party, date, time and duration. Internet information includes date, time and duration of internet sessions and email logs from Telstra-administered addresses), 2,871 for "Life threatening situations and Triple Zero emergency calls", 270 for "Court orders", 1450 for "Warrants for interception or access to stored communications" (real time access): an average of around 222 requests per calendar day.

In 2013 more than 500 authors including five Nobel prize winners and Australian identities Frank Moorhouse, John Coetzee, Helen Garner, Geraldine Brooks and David Malouf signed a global petition to protest mass surveillance after the whistleblower Edward Snowden's global surveillance disclosures informed the world, including Australians, that they are being monitored by the National Security Agency's XKeyscore system and its boundless informant. Snowden had further revealed that Australian government intelligence agencies, specifically the Australian Signals Directorate, also have access to the system as part of the international Five Eyes surveillance alliance.

In August 2014 it was reported that law-enforcement agencies had been accessing Australians' web browsing histories via internet providers such as Telstra without a warrant (Optus confirmed that they cooperate with law enforcement, and Vodafone did not return a request for comment). The revelations came less than a week after government attempts to increase their surveillance powers through new legislation allowing offensive computer hacking by government intelligence agencies, and mere months after outrage surrounding the government's offer to share personal information about citizens with Five Eyes intelligence partners.

As of August 2014, no warrant is required for organisations to access the so-called 'metadata' information of private parties. This is information regarding "calls and emails sent and received, the location of a phone, internet browsing activity. There is no access to the content of the communication, just how, to or from whom, when and where". Under current law many organisations other than federal, state and territory police and security agencies such as ASIO can get access to this information, including "any agency that collects government revenue", for example the RSPCA, the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (though reportedly temporarily removed from the list), the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink, Medicare, Australia Post, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, the Victorian Taxi Services Commission, the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, WorkSafe Victoria, local councils and foreign law enforcement agencies.

In the 2013-2014 financial year there were over half a million disclosures of metadata to agencies.

The Australian Communications & Media Authority provides instructions for internet service providers and other telecommunications providers about their law enforcement, national security and interception obligations.

During the 2015-2016 financial year 712 warrants were issued for access to stored communications, 3,857 interception warrants were issued, and 63 enforcement agencies were granted 333,980 authorizations for metadata access.

There's some reports said Australia has been collaborating with Chinese Great Firewall security officials in implementing its data retention and filtering infrastructure and possibly obtained surveillance technology from China.

In 2025, it's been reported that in Australia online services from search engines, to social media apps, to app stores and AI chatbots will have to check users' age, possibly via ID checks.

StatCounter Global Stats estimates browser usage using page views recorded on websites running its analytics service. Its figures measure page views rather than browser installations or unique users. In Australia in July 2026, its ten leading browser categories across all platforms were:

Cloudflare Radar provides a separate estimate based on HTTP requests reaching websites proxied through its network. When accessed on 2 August 2026, its Australian data also listed Chrome, Safari and Edge as the three leading browser families.

Cloudflare identifies browsers using the User-Agent and Client Hints headers, excludes WebViews, and limits its quarterly sample to websites that used Cloudflare throughout the reporting period. Because Cloudflare and StatCounter use different samples and classification methods, their percentage estimates are not directly comparable.