CANBERRA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data revealed on Monday a surge in popularity of mobile wireless internet use across the nation.

    Since December last year there has been a 51 percent increase in subscribers to mobile wireless, the service that allows customers to access the net at places away from their home such as coffee shops and airport lounges.

    A highly competitive market has seen mobile wireless subscriptions spike from 1.3 million in December 2008 to 2 million in June this year. They now account for 27 percent of all non-dialup subscriptions, up from 20 percent six months ago.

    The ABS figures on mobile wireless do not yet take into account connections via mobile phones.

    Overall there were 8.4 million active internet subscribers in Australia at the end of June, with dial-up connections falling rapidly.

    The trend towards higher download speeds continued, with 57 percent of subscribers now using a download speed of 1.5 Mbps or greater, compared with 51 percent in December 2008.