The price war for internet, fixed line and mobile customers looks to be over in Australia.
Overall prices for telecommunication services were relatively stable in the year ended June 30, 2015, falling in real terms by 0.5 per cent.
That compares to falls over the past eight years, which averaged 3.3 per cent, according to a new report by the competition regulator.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims said consumers are "reaping the benefits of competition in the form of increased data allowances, new services and lowers prices", but acknowledged the slight fall in prices.
The dip in prices suggests that "competition on factors other than price has been a feature of the market," Mr Sims said Tuesday.
"Given this, the ACCC will continue to take a particular interest in ensuring consumers receive accurate information about network performance," he added.
Australians are consuming more and more data on their smartphones and computer tablets, thanks to the rise of streaming services such as Netflix, Presto and Stan.
On fixed networks, data consumption jumped by 40 per cent to 1.3 million terabytes of data. On mobile networks, data consumption rose by 35 per cent to 110,000 TB in fiscal 2015, according to the report.
Mobile prices increased by around 0.2 percent, with data allowances increasing "substantially", according to the report.
"This is only the third year in which prices have increased since the commencement of the mobile price index in 1997-98.
"Otherwise, mobile prices have exhibited a strong decreasing trend over the past 17 years," the ACCC said in its report.
Internet service prices slipped by 1.3 per cent as internet data quotas increased sharply in fiscal 2015, while fixed line voice service prices fell by 1.6 per cent.
Several mergers and new alliances took place over the past financial year, including TPG Telecom's acquisition of iiNet and NBN Co's acquisition of Optus' hybrid fibre coaxial network.
"The fixed broadband market is now relatively concentrated and further consolidation would receive close attention from the ACCC," Mr Sims warned.
