NBN users increasingly shifting to 50Mbps plans: ACCC

Just under half of total NBN users have shifted to plans with speeds of at least 50Mbps, a report from the ACCC revealed.

The commission’s latest quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report revealed that 2.2 million NBN customers are on plans having speeds of 50 Mbps or more, out of the total 4.5 million users.

The 50Mbps speeds comprise the lion’s share of the users, with 1.8 million services on the tier, up ten-fold from 159,000 in December 2017.

“The NBN Co’s Focus on 50 promotion has demonstrated that RSPs and their customers are willing to move to higher speed plans if the incentives are right,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.

“We expect these incentives will continue to operate as NBN Co transitions to longer term bundled pricing for the higher speed plans.”

The number of customers choosing the most basic plans are also increasing, with the 12Mbps plan getting a 4.3 percent increase to 1.2 million.

The report also revealed that the number of services provided over fibre to the curb (FTTC) technology was at 39,204 at the end of September. This would be the first time the quarterly report published FTTC numbers.

Average CVC per user also increased this quarter by 2.9 percent, from 1.66Mbps in June 2018 to 1.71Mbps in September 2018. Comparatively, the CVC per user was 1.00Mbps in March 2017.

“It is important RSPs maintain sufficient CVC capacity to ensure consumers get the service they have paid for, particularly in the busy period,” Sims said.

“The ACCC will continue to monitor CVC utilisation under its record-keeping powers. The ACCC’s Monitoring Broadband Australia Program will also continue to rank RSPs by whether they are providing the speeds expected by consumers.”