While Australia is in the midst of an internet explosion, broadband consumers are over-spending on their connections by $141 million due to lack of understanding, new research has found.

The iSelect Broadband Report released today reveals over 7.5 million Australian households subscribe to broadband internet, a jump of almost a million in 12 months.

The research shows broadband is booming in Australia - Australians are on average downloading more than 48 gigabytes of data per household per month (the equivalent of approximately 20 movies and 2000 songs), or a massive 368 million4 nationally per month.

More than half of Australians across all age groups rate the internet as the single most important piece of technology in their home, ahead of television. Entire families are now online, with three or more people accessing the internet in almost half of Australian households (48 per cent).

In their enthusiasm to do more online however, Australians are failing to review and update their plans to meet their changing needs.
Over half (59 per cent) of those surveyed admitted they did little or no research into different broadband services before choosing a broadband package.

According to the report, Australians are confused about what they are paying for, despite rating themselves highly on their ‘internet intelligence’, with 83 per cent reporting they have a good or very good understanding of the internet at home. Those who go over their monthly data allowance are spending on average almost $200 a year extra for the privilege.

Technology expert and blogger, Charlie Brown, said in contrast with the heightened status of broadband internet in the home, Australians aren’t researching their choice of plans properly. There is a lack of understanding of the more technical details such as connection speeds and how much data they actually need, leading to consumers signing up to plans that don’t fulfil their needs,” he said.

A quarter of Australians don’t know how much data they download each month, and consistent with this, a third never check how much of their download limit they have used.

Less than a quarter (24 per cent) understand how the speed of their broadband connection is measured (megabits per second), yet 86 per cent say speed is very or extremely important to them.

“Australians need to do their homework on broadband before signing up to a new contract. It doesn’t need to be time consuming or difficult - if you use an online comparison service, you can evaluate plans based on your actual needs to find the best one for you,” said Charlie.