Competition among NBN wholesalers is increasing: ACCC report

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has indicated that competition in the wholesale NBN market is increasing in its most recent quarterly NBN wholesale market indicators report.

The report for the period ending 30 September said that more access seekers for the NBN had built “sufficient” scale to directly connect with the network at more points of interconnect (POIs).

“This report provides a clear indication of the level of competition developing over the NBN,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.

“Some of the small players are experiencing rapid growth and this shows promise for future competition.”

He added that direct connection to the NBN would allow more control for smaller retail service providers (RSPs) over their network in terms of how much connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) they provision.

The amount of wholesale broadband access services supplied by NBN Co has gone up to 3,038,483 for the third quarter, up from 2,511,392 services in the second quarter, ending in June.

The report also indicates that there is more CVC acquired per user, up to 1.11 megabits per second in September from 1.09 megabits per second per user in June.

“This is encouraging as provisioning adequate CVC is essential if RSPs are to ensure households and businesses can get the speeds they are promised,” 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 report also found the proportion of broadband access services acquired at metropolitan POIs is up 41 percent year-over-year in the third quarter 2017.

“The proportion of metropolitan activations will continue to increase as the rollout in capital cities expands,” Sims said.

The report indicated that the most popular NBN speed tier was the 25Mbps tier, accounting for 55 percent of all services connected.

The 12Mbps tier comes in second at 29 percent, with 100Mbps at 12 percent and 50Mbps at 4 percent.