More and more consumers are receiving higher-speed NBN plans and the 50Mbps plan now makes up 26 per cent of all NBN plans, up from just 4.6 per cent in December 2017.
The ACCC’s ninth quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report found the number of 50Mbps services being acquired from NBN Co increased from 158,959 to 989,360 in the quarter to 31 March 2018.
"Nearly one million customers are now using a plan with 50Mbps speeds. This is a remarkable shift in just three months," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.
In December 2017, NBN Co launched its ‘Focus on 50’ promotion, offering a temporary credit to retailers for acquiring 50 per cent more Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) per user and reducing the price of the Access Virtual Circuit (AVC) for 50 Mbps services.
Retailers have taken up these incentives in large numbers, enabling their customers to transfer to the higher 50Mbps speed tier, which offers them a better NBN experience.
"We are pleased to see retailers taking up the higher speed services and enabling their customers to shift to 50Mbps plans. This is good for consumers who can enjoy the benefits of higher speeds," Mr Sims said.
Average CVC per user continues to increase, rising from 1.52Mbps in December 2017 to 1.55Mbps in March 2018. This follows a 38 per cent increase in CVC per user in the quarter to December 2017.
"However, we would expect that with more consumers on higher speed plans, retailers will continue to provision enough CVC to ensure a continuing good customer experience, particularly during the busy evening periods," Mr Sims said.
The ACCC will continue to monitor broadband speeds and CVC utilisation by retailers to ensure that consumers can get the services they are promised.
By the end of March 2018, all 121 points of interconnection (POIs) had at least five access seeker groups acquiring services directly from NBN Co. At least six groups were connected at 120 of the POIs, and 95 POIs had at least seven groups acquiring services.
"This is a sign competition is continuing to increase, and consumers at ever more locations have a greater choice of providers who directly connect with the NBN," Mr Sims said.
The full report is at NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report
Key points from the March report:
- The number of 50Mbps services increased substantially and now account for 26 per cent of all wholesale services. The number of 50Mbps Services in Operation in March 2018 was more than six times that in the December quarter.
- NBN Co was supplying a total of 3,813,994 wholesale broadband access services (up from 3,467,306 services in the December quarter).
- A total of 6,008 gigabits per second of CVC capacity was acquired at the end of the March 2018 quarter (5,385 for December).
- The average amount of TC-4 (residential broadband) CVC acquired per user increased from 1.52Mbps in December to 1.55Mbps in March 2018.
- There are at least seven access seeker groups directly connected at 95 of NBN Co’s 121 POIs.
Notes to editors
The Wholesale Market Indicators Report discloses key information on the number of wholesale access services acquired over the NBN as detailed in the NBN Services in Operation Record Keeping Rule and required under part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act (2010).
The report covers the number of NBN services in operation by access technology type such as FTTP, FTTB, FTTN, HFC, fixed wireless and satellite. It also covers these services by geographic region, speed tier and traffic class – voice (traffic class 1), business (traffic class 2) and residential broadband (traffic class 4). The report also includes data on the total contracted CVC capacity on the NBN and the number of access seeker groups who directly connect with NBN Co at each NBN point of interconnect (POI).
An NBN wholesale access service is used by an NBN access seeker to supply a retail service directly to its own customers or, alternatively, to supply a wholesale service to another retail service provider.
Most retail service providers (RSPs) do not directly connect with NBN Co and resell NBN services acquired from other NBN access seekers (such as Telstra and Optus). Those RSPs are not separately identified in this report.
The NBN Services in Operation Record Keeping Rule Disclosure Direction was varied in March 2018 and now requires NBN Co to report more detailed information. This includes reporting by each state and territory, reducing the threshold for identifying access seekers to one per cent market share, and a new table outlining the number and type of AVC and the amount of CVC acquired on a POI by POI basis.
