National Broadband Network company head Mike Quigley says a big increase in internet usage has strengthened the case for a new Australian telecommunications network.

Australian Communications and Media Authority figures show significant increases in data downloads and people accessing the internet by mobile phone.

Mr Quigley, who is in charge of designing, building and operating the new, mostly fibre network, says the point where the old copper network runs out of capacity is approaching faster.

"As we've seen with this latest data, where we've had, year-over-year in the June quarter, another well-over-50-per cent increase in capacity from 99 petabytes to 155 - now that's a lot of bytes that have been downloaded in Australia," he said.

"Ultimately you're going to need a new type of infrastructure to keep up with demand."