New figures released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner (ACCC) have revealed that services on NBN Co’s slowest wholesale speed tier — which offers downloads of up to 12 megabits per second and 1Mbps uploads — have increased for the first time since mid-2018.
The ACCC today released its latest NBN wholesale market indicators report, which revealed that as of 30 September, there were just over 1,005,000 active 12/1Mbps services on its network. That compares to almost 954,000 as of the end of June 2019.
It’s the first time 12/1Mbps services have increased since September 2018, when there were around 1,213,000 such services active on the NBN compared to just under 1,163,000 services as of the end of June 2018.
Until now there has been a steady decline in 12/1Mbps services, with 1.164 million at the end of December 2018 and 997,000 as of March 2019.
NBN Co has pushed for retail service providers (RSPs) to make its 50Mbps offering their standard NBN speed tier, and the ACCC figures confirm that 65 per cent of active services as of the end of September were on 50Mbps+ services.
The ACCC has previously expressed concern over the pricing of ‘ADSL-equivalent’ services, as more suburbs approach the end of the 18-month transition period after which copper services are shut off.
In response, NBN Co has moved to significantly cut the wholesale cost of 12Mbps services, though its new discount did not kick in until last month.
The ACCC said that today’s report indicated competition in the wholesale market had increased, with more telcos directly connecting to the NBN at more Points of Interconnect (POIs).
Nine telcos were directly connected to all 121 POIs as of the end of September, with 10 connected to at least 119. Telstra continues to dominate the NBN wholesale market, accounting for 48.1 per cent of all services.