The number of Internet subscribers hit 5.7 million at the end of September 2004, up 10% from the end of March and following on from a slight increase (0.2%) in the six months to the end of March 2004, new ABS data released today shows. The large growth (51%) in non dial-up subscribers from 861,000 to 1.3 million between March and September drove the increase in overall subscriber numbers. Non dial-up subscribers represented almost 23% of Internet subscribers at the end of September – the highest proportion of subscribers recorded for non dial-up technologies since the inception of the survey in September 2000. Most of the growth for non dial-up was in the household subscriber sector, with an increase of 58% in non dial-up subscribers since March. The number of household non dial-up subscribers at the end of September was 979,000 or over 75% of non dial-up subscribers. The number of dial-up subscribers recorded at the end of September was just over 4.4 million, a small increase (2%) from the number recorded at the end of March. Despite the growth, industry consolidation saw the number of ISPs fall by seven to 687 servicing 5.7 million active subscribers in the six months to September. Changes influencing the numbers of ISPs varied from new broadband-only ISPs entering the industry to a number of takeovers and mergers. There were 10 ISPs with over 100,000 subscribers at the end of September 2004. In usage terms, data downloaded by subscribers during the September quarter increased significantly (72%) to 11,004 million MBs from the 6,409 million MBs downloaded during the March quarter. Non dial-up subscribers accounted for 84% of the total data downloaded, reflecting the much faster download speeds available with non dial-up technology. Digital subscriber line (DSL) was the predominant access technology used for non dial-up Internet services, with over 63% of total non dial-up subscribers being connected using this means. There were 549 ISPs (80% of total ISPs) providing Internet services using DSL access technologies at the end of September.