Australian consumers are reaping the benefits from an increase in data allowances, new services, and lower prices, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

“Consistent with the trend in recent years, consumer demand for data is continuing to increase and is affecting both fixed and mobile networks,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims, pictured, said yesterday.

On fixed networks, data consumption grew by 40 percent to 1.3 million terabytes (TB) of data. On mobile networks, data consumption increased by 35 percent to 110,000 terabytes.

“The increase in demand for data is largely due to the popularity of audio-visual streaming services, including the introduction of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Presto and Stan,” Sims said.

He said industry members have stepped up their fixed and mobile networks to ensure that they have sufficient capacity to meet the data traffic.

During 2014-15, data allowances increased by more than 70 percent for DSL Internet services and more than doubled for post-paid mobile services. At the same time, overall prices fell by 0.5 percent in real terms.