Internet use is growing in remote First Nations communities, however cost remains a barrier.

Despite increased access, a new study from RMIT University has revealed Indigenous communities continue to experience a digital gap, with cost continuing to impact greater digital inclusion for First Nations people.

RMIT Associate Professor Lyndon Ormond-Parker, a member of the federal government's First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group, was principal research fellow on the study, and said some of the biggest challenges were service affordability.

"So being able to install a satellite dish in your house, for example," she said.

"So where you live in a community, you may not have access to a credit card, you may not have access to identity documents where you'll need to be able to provide via your own internet service for your own home.

"So therefore, you're relying on prepaid services."

Researchers visited 12 remote communities with different population sizes for the study.

For three years they observed a 12 per cent increase in the number of people using the internet, and approximately 19 per cent more regular internet users.

The results were promising, however a notable infrastructure problem remained.

Senior research fellow at RMIT, Dr Daniel Featherstone, said the challenge with that barrier was that most infrastructure relied on co-investment by industry.

"Where there's very small populations, there's very remote areas without the fibre optic network infrastructure," he explained.

"It's a lot more expensive to roll out to those communities, and there isn't that return on investment."

Telstra head of First Nation strategy and engagement, Lauren Ganley, said the barriers went beyond that.

"There's the cost to build it, but then there's also a huge reliance on power in remote communities," she said.

"So when there's a power outage that dramatically affects the connectivity, which relies heavily on power, that's a big barrier."

The study also found that 99 per cent of mobile phone users relied on prepaid credit recharges, with low and unreliable incomes limiting their uptake of better-value monthly plans.

Ms Ganley said new, cheaper pre-paid plans were being implemented in remote areas by providers.

Professor Ormond-Parker - who is leading the federal strategy to progress a key Closing the Gap target: to achieve equal levels of digital inclusion for First Nations people by 2026 - said that once people could access the internet, they then needed the skills to use it effectively.

"It's vital people have a reasonable level of digital literacy … so they can then go online and access government services, whether it's accessing Medicare, whether it's accessing Centrelink, whether it's accessing the tax office," she said.

"We've seen innovation in remote communities where people are engaging younger people in particular.

"There's a long way to go, but we are slowly making progress, but we need to bridge that digital divide so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait people can make informed decisions about their life and get online and get online safely."