Some economic and social aspects of residential Internet use in Australia

This study constructs a profile of the representative Australian residentia l Internet user from data obtained from a web-based survey. Survey data ind icate the representative user is male, 20 to 40 years of age, highly educat ed, uses the Internet 8 hrs per week for email and FTP, and has a monthly b ill of AUD32. An ordered-legit model relates Internet use to price, sociode mographic and connection capacity variables. Model estimates show the proba bility of higher Internet use is greater for middle-income households, but declines with age of the user. Policy may be required to enhance access to lower-income groups, and to inform the elderly of the potential capabilitie s of the new technology. Further, model estimates suggest that Australian I nternet subscribers prefer flat-rate pricing (or a combination of flat-rate and usage-sensitive pricing) over usage-sensitive pricing schemes. This re sult is consistent with Australian consumer attitudes toward local telephon e and mobile cellular pricing.