Australian Businesses Going Online

Australian enterprises continue to adopt the Internet at a steady pace, according to www.consult, an Australian research firm. The firm’s findings are based on the results of four separate surveys.

The number of leased line digital permanent connections has increased in Australia, but businesses Down Under are still increasingly using dial-up Internet access and analog leased lines, taking advantage of the unlimited use local call in the progress. In January of 1999, www.consult reports there were more than 100,000 lines being used for Internet access in Australia by dial-up and permanent connections.

OzEmail (27 percent of the market) and Telestra (20 percent) are the most popular service providers among Australian enterprises. The rest of the market is split among Australia’s 640 ISPs.

Web presence among Australian enterprises almost doubled from February 1998 to January 1999, according to www.consult. Some 48,000 businesses are being hosted at ISPs with their own domain names. Another 50,000 Web sites are being hosted in house or at a shopping mall or directory.

The favorite Web server software of Australian businesses is Apache, which has a 61 percent share of the market. Microsoft’s IIS has increased to a 25 percent share.

Internet usage patterns in Australia are reflecting an increase in business usage according to www.consult. The proportion of Australian Internet users accessing from work increased to 25 percent in January of 1999, with another 13 percent accessing from home for work purposes. The business-hours volume Internet traffic peak is now coming close to the after-hours peak that occurs at 10 p.m.

Business activities and business-related research were the second most commonly cited use of the Internet at 198 percent, email was first at 27 percent.

March 4, 1999