An increased number of consumers are getting higher-speed NBN plans with the 50Mbps plan making 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 by nbn 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 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.
The Multi-Technology mix has enabled the company to scale the network quickly, with 7.5 million premises now ready for service.
The company is on track to complete 75 per cent of the build by the end of 2018.
A total of 6.5 million homes and businesses were declared ready to connect at 31 March 2018, representing an additional two million premises compared to the same time in 2017.
Activations rose to 3.7 million across the network, representing an additional 1.7 million more activations compared to 31 March 2017.
Growth in activations across the network helped revenue surge by 112 per cent to reach $1.4 billion in total for the nine months, supported by an Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of $44.
Average congestion has decreased from more than six hours a week per service in March 2017 to 18 minutes today.
Currently, 91 per cent of nbn equipment installations within the company’s control are achieved correctly at the first appointment.
nbn is also connecting 93 per cent of all standard orders within the time frames agreed with Retail Service Providers (RSPs) under the Wholesale Broadband Agreement (WBA).
This compares to 85 per cent of equipment installations completed correctly first time and 88 per cent of connections within agreed timeframes in March 2017.
