Internet subscribers in Australia climbed to 10.4 million in the six months to December 2010, according to official national figures.

A report released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said this is up from 9.5 million in June 2010, which represents a growth of nearly 10 per cent in the last six months.

The number of business and government internet subscribers grew by 26 per cent to 2.3 million, while the number of household internet subscribers grew by 6 per cent to 8.1 million.

The growth in both sectors was driven by the continued uptake of mobile wireless broadband connections, which increased by 777,000 (or 22.5 per cent) to 4.2 million in the six months to 31 December 2010.

At the end of December 2010, there were 8.2 million mobile handset internet subscribers in Australia. The volume of data downloaded via mobile handsets was 4,029 Terabytes.

Meanwhile, NBN Co today said it has indefinitely suspended its network construction tender after construction companies were unable to provide acceptable terms and prices following four rounds of pricing negotiations.

NBN Co Head of Corporate Services, Kevin Brown said: “We have said all along that we are building an NBN, but not at any price.

“We have thoroughly benchmarked our project against similar engineering and civil works projects in Australia and overseas and we will not proceed on the basis of prices we are currently being offered.

“NBN Co is confident it can secure better value for money by going a different route. We have left the option open to continue negotiations at a later stage.

HeMr Brown said NBN Co has a solid track record of negotiating cost-effective deals for the goods and services it needs to build the network. In the past 18 months over 90 tenders, involving hundreds of companies, with a face value of in excess of $5 billion, have been successfully negotiated.

NBN Co commenced the tender process with a call for request for capability statements 12 months ago. That attracted 45 potential suppliers narrowed down to 14 companies/joint ventures that proceeded to the RFP.