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Relationship of wage on internet usage

cost graph

[Source Link] Raw figures [PDF] [XLS]

  • This graph shows statistics for each wage bracket (Weekly)
  • The Government has indicated monthly internet costs will rise under the NBN –
    higher than $100 per month for their frequently advertised 100Mbps speed.
  • According to statistics, the wealthier people are more likely to have internet
  • So, we need more affordable internet / communication, not a “Fibre to the
    Premises” NBN
  • Also, the Implementation study notes a need to capture 80% of the communication market to be financially viable
  • 16% of the Australian population without broadband are those who earn less than $400 / week
  • How are they going to achieve 80% uptake when low income earners can’t even afford the
    internet today!?

Current Data [Updated 2016-09-23]

Here is some more current data which shows the general theme above is still a problem. 31% of households without internet access were concentrated in the lowest wage bracket, between 2012 – 2013. 21% of individual persons did not use the internet in 2014 – 2015, and were the largest cohort concentrated in the lowest wage bracket.

201213
Table 1: Data for 2012 – 2013 – Households [ABS – 81460do001_201213.xls – Table_4 – snippet]

201415
Table 2: Data for 2014 – 2015 – Persons [ABS – 81460do002_201415.xls – Table 1 – (Household data didn’t have wage brackets)]

It’s strange that the lower wage bracket isn’t broken down further. There were more brackets in the 2006 data. NewStart allowance is ~$12k per year. We need to know if there’s a point where the “without” trend peaks, I assume it peaks at the lowest wage.

We also need to know where the bulk of the population lies. This can be done by combining with other datasets. It would also be good to overlay other data such as: number of people in the households of such wage brackets, and number of children in households of such wage brackets. The category 120k+ should be removed, we’re not learning much more above $80k.

Can the ABS plan for more categories <40k in all subsequent studies? Can the data be updated more frequently and consistently?

Internet Needs

There are common trends, what people most need the internet for, and what we imagine the internet is needed for. I start with the assumption that no more than 25mbps is required per person usually. If someone claims there are future requirements, they need to add it to our spreadsheet, and we’ll update our conclusions accordingly.

Background Resources

  1. Things to do, and estimates of performance requirements – Shared Google Spreadsheet – see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QhF98HSyiwrNXunzhgqeQxSOo7O68-zgYmWv2OzxaWM/edit?usp=sharing
  2. Public statistics – TODO – we already have affordability stats which show consumers are price sensitive. We need to seek statistics of the percentages of what people do online, and reasonable projected trends so we can objectively prove “Most”. Here’s a list of links to review later: 1-against

Conclusions

  1. VR UHD uses less bandwidth than a HD movie – details are in spreadsheet
  2. 25mbps (DL/UL) is enough for most individual home users, and includes catering for their media needs for the next 5-10 years
  3. Many, but not most households will have concurrent high-demand users. But they can pay and get 100mbps
  4. Most people need 25mbps at home for the next 10-15 years

Contributions: Please send in any other “web applications” that you can think of which will challenge these conclusions. Eventually, I would like to build a 0-5 years, 5-10 years, and 10-15 years projection based on data, instead of people’s gut feelings.

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