{"id":517,"date":"2018-11-14T16:46:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T16:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=517"},"modified":"2018-11-14T16:46:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T16:46:11","slug":"nbn-users-continue-shift-to-higher-speed-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2018\/11\/14\/nbn-users-continue-shift-to-higher-speed-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"NBN users continue shift to higher speed plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 4.5 million residents now have an NBN broadband connection at home, and nearly half of them are on fast plans with speeds of 50Mbps or more, the latest\u00a0ACCC quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report<\/a>\u00a0shows.
\nThe ACCC\u2019s report for the September quarter shows the number of NBN residential broadband connections rose from about 4.1 million last quarter (up almost 8.6 per cent).
\nMore than 2.2 million consumers are now on these high-speed plans, an increase of 20 per cent on the previous quarter. Of these, there are now 1.8 million services on the 50Mbps speed tier, a more than a ten-fold increase compared to about 159,000 residential customers on 50Mbps plans in December 2017.
\nThis reflects NBN Co\u2019s pricing strategies to encourage Retail Service Providers (RSPs) and their customers to higher speed plans, as well as various other initiatives including the ACCC\u2019s advertising speed guidance project.
\n\u201cThe NBN Co\u2019s Focus on 50 promotion has demonstrated that RSPs and their customers are willing to move to higher speed plans if the incentives are right,\u201d ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
\n\u201cWe expect these incentives will continue to operate as NBN Co transitions to longer term bundled pricing for the higher speed plans.\u201d
\nHowever, at the same time, the number of customers choosing the most basic NBN services also continues to rise. Just over 1.2 million consumers are on the lowest 12Mbps speed plan (up by 4.3 per cent).
\n\u201cConsumers on 12\/1 plans still represent more than a quarter of all NBN services. It is important that NBN Co recognises the needs of this significant cohort of consumers for an affordable and reliable service,\u201d Mr Sims said.
\nAverage CVC per user also continued to rise this quarter, up by 2.9 per cent, from 1.66Mbps in June 2018 to 1.71Mbps in September 2018. In March 2017 it was 1.00Mbps.
\n\u201cIt is important RSPs maintain sufficient CVC capacity to ensure consumers get the service they have paid for, particularly in the busy period,\u201d Mr Sims said.
\n\u201cThe ACCC will continue to monitor CVC utilisation under its record-keeping powers. The ACCC\u2019s Monitoring Broadband Australia Program will also continue to rank RSPs by whether they are providing the speeds expected by consumers.\u201d
\nThis quarter\u2019s report also includes, for the first time, the number of services provided over Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) technology, with 39,204 FTTC services in operation at the end of September.
\nOverall market shares remained relatively stable; smaller RSPs increased their market share slightly from 6.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent (adding about 27,000 more services).
\nAll 121 POIs had at least six access seeker groups (including Telstra, Optus, TPG, Vocus and Aussie Broadband) acquiring NBN services directly from NBN Co. There were seven access seeker groups at 118 of the 121 POIs.
\nThe ACCC will continue to monitor the evolution of the NBN broadband market to help consumers make an informed choices about broadband plans.
\nKey points from the September 2018 report:<\/strong><\/p>\n