Almost three quarters of Australian businesses have adopted a DSL technology, according to a 2004 IDC survey.

According to the survey, 73.7 percent businesses now were using DSL, an increase from 49.5 percent in 2003, with the greatest demand coming from the SMB market.

In addition, spending on broadband as a whole had decreased by more than half since 2003, said Susana Vidal, telecommunications analyst at IDC.

"Businesses are dropping their backup or multiple connections," she said, adding that the businesses surveyed rated DSL as having a high quality service than ISDN and leased lines.

Vidal added that DSL prices had falling was another reason for the decreased spending.

The survey said that companies are spending approximately A$3,500 per month on broadband connections, a drop from $7,600 per month in 2003.

Australian businesses were spending more on IP-services, such as IP-VPN and IP-Telephony ('voice over IP'), and that half the surveyed businesses wanted to increase spending.

"Telstra has the highest market share in broadband business services with 51.9 percent, followed by Optus with 11.2 percent, and third iiNet/iHug with 3.1 percent. Other broadband service providers share 33.8 percent of the remaining market," said Vidal.