Slow growth in VoIP take up in Australia

The reasons given were that they have no interest in them, or that the costs are too high, or they do not know how to access the services.

3G phones are often chosen because they can play videos or because they have a good camera. Some people don’t even realise that their phone does have 3G features.

The report also found 90% of households have both a fixed-line phone and a mobile phone, but almost half preferred to use mobiles as their main calling method.

New broadband internet services such as naked DSL allow people in Australia to subscribe to ADSL without also paying landline rental fees, and the move away from fixed lines is expected to increase.

Currently the take up of VoIP phone services is low. Only one in five households with internet access have used a VoIP service. However, a quarter of households indicated they would consider replacing their fixed-line services with other forms of voice communications.

The number of mobile phones in use in Australia now exceeds the nation's population, with 43% of young people between 18 and 24 years using 3G phones.