Figure 4.11 Year-on-year percentage changes in the price index by PSTN service component for other business consumers, 2009−10 to 2013−14
4.3 VoIP sub-index
As noted above, the VoIP services index has been included in this report for the first time. The indices in this section should be interpreted with a degree of caution as the reporting companies are reporting on this service for the first time, and given the low volume of data in the current period, the movement in percentage changes may over emphasise the actual movement in absolute figures.
Average real prices of overall VoIP services declined by 6.6 per cent in 2013−14 (figure 4.12). Prices for international call services declined the most in real percentage terms, followed by basic access and fixed-to-mobile services.
Figure 4.12 The VoIP services index by service component, 2012−13 to 2013−14
Table 4.8 shows the movement in the service components of the VoIP sub-index in 2013−14. International VoIP services index declined by 16.4 per cent (in real terms) followed by basic access and fixed-to-mobile services which declined by 8.2 per cent and 4.8 per cent (both in real terms) respectively.
Table 4.8 Year-on-year ‘real’ percentage changes in the VoIP service index by service component, 2013−14
|
All VoIP
|
Basic access
|
−8.2
|
Local calls
|
0.0
|
National long-distance
|
−2.9
|
International
|
−16.4
|
Fixed-to-mobile
|
−4.8
|
VoIP services index
|
−6.6
|
Figure 4.13 shows the contributions made by different components of VoIP services to the decline in the overall VoIP service index in 2013−14. Basic access was the main driver of the decline in the overall VoIP prices followed by fixed-to-mobile and international calls.
Figure 4.13 Points contribution of VoIP service components to the changes in the VoIP sub-index, 2013−14
The majority of the VoIP consumer expenditure was on basic access component of the service (42 per cent), followed by expenditure on fixed-to mobile services (34 per cent), local calls (12 per cent), international (8 per cent) and national long-distance (4 per cent).
5 Mobile services index
The mobiles services index measures average real price changes for mobile services in Australia.
Prices for mobile services provided via GSM, 3G and 4G technologies are reported on an aggregated basis. The aggregated approach is used as carriers have advised that they increasingly find it difficult to disaggregate data by technology type. In addition, most handsets are capable of roaming between different networks or technology platforms (subject to network availability) and only a small proportion of the services are tied to a particular technology.
This report includes data on the overall mobile services index and the post-paid and prepaid sub-indices. Indices are calculated based on plan prices for bundles of mobile services, representing the expenditure patterns of consumer with notional ‘very low’, ‘low’, ‘average’, ‘high’ and ‘very high’ spend on mobile services.133 Sub-indices are derived for post-paid and prepaid mobile services and are then weighted using revenue weights for each type of service to derive the overall mobile services index.
5.1 Overall changes
Average real prices of mobile services fell by approximately 2.0 per cent in 2013−14. This implies that nominal mobile prices increased by less than the 3.0 per cent rate of inflation in the period.
Figure 5.1 shows that price reductions in 2013−14 were slightly higher than in 2012−13.
Figure 5.1 Overall mobile services index, 1997−98 to 2013−14
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