The incumbents overall broadband subscriber base - combining BigPond Retail and Telstra Wholesale customers - more than doubled in 2003, rising from 244,000 at the beginning of the year to 500,000 now. At the end of March last year there were a total of 423,600 broadband users in Australia.
"Telstra's campaign to encourage broadband take-up has seen broadband customer numbers more than double since the beginning of last year," said Bruce Akhurst, group managing director, Telstra Broadband.
Telstra recently announced it would extend its ADSL reach to a further 400,000 households by the end of March.
Optus has also announced new business ADSL plans it hopes will increase take up of broadband in the business community, which will further assist Telstra since Optus uses the Telstra wholesale DSL network for the last mile.
