The ACCC has released its quarterly National Broadband Network Wholesale Market Indicators Report for the period ending 30 September 2017.
The ACCC said competition is increasing as more access seekers have built sufficient scale to directly connect with the NBN at more points of interconnection (POIs).
ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims, said this report provides a clear indication of the level of competition developing over the NBN.
“Some of the small players are experiencing rapid growth and this shows promise for future competition. Direct connection will allow smaller retail service providers to have more control over their network in terms of how much Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) they provision,” Mr Sims said.
The report also indicates more CVC is being acquired per user, from 1.09 megabits per second per user in June 2017 to 1.11 megabits per second per user in September 2017.
“This is encouraging as provisioning adequate CVC is essential if RSPs are to ensure households and businesses can get the speeds they are promised,” Mr Sims said.
“The ACCC’s current consultation proposing more detailed reporting by nbn Co should improve our understanding of CVC provisioning and use, particularly concerning times when congestion limits are reached.”
The ACCC is closely monitoring how much CVC is being acquired and used, to complement its other monitoring activities such as the Broadband Performance Monitoring and Reporting program.
The proportion of broadband access services acquired at metropolitan POIs has increased from 33 per cent in September 2016 to 41 per cent in the September 2017 quarter.
“The proportion of metropolitan activations will continue to increase as the roll out in capital cities expands,” Mr Sims said.
The 25 megabits per second speed tier accounted for 55 per cent of all services connected followed by 12 megabits per second (29 per cent), 100 megabits per second (12 per cent) and 50 megabits per second (four per cent).
“The most popular speed tier on the NBN remains 25 megabits per second,” Mr Sims said.
Key points from the September report:
- nbn was supplying a total of 3,038,483 wholesale broadband access services (up from 2,511,392 services in the June quarter)
- Demand for aggregate network capacity (CVC) continues to increase with nbno contracted to supply 3,452 gigabits per second (up from 2,820 in the June quarter)
- The amount of CVC acquired per user increased to 1.11 megabits per second (up from 1.09 megabits per second per user in the June quarter)
- The number of premises connected via HFC almost doubled
- There are 26 access seeker groups directly connected to nbn’s network. Of these, the top four (Telstra, Optus, TPG Group and Vocus) are connected at all 121 POIs and:
- At all 121 POIs there is at least one additional access seeker
- At 112 of the POIs there are at least two additional access seekers
- At 71 of the POIs there are at least three more access seekers
