The number of residential broadband services on the 25 Mbps speed tier grew by 125,000 services, to approximately 1.4 million, or 16 per cent of the NBN wholesale market, in the March 2023 quarter, the ACCC’s latest NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report reveals.
While the 50 Mbps tier remains the most popular, accounting for 52 per cent of the market, it dropped by 99,000 services, or 2.1 per cent, during the quarter to just over 4.5 million, likely due to the removal of wholesale discounts last year.
Also of note is the uptake of plans at 250 Mbps and above, which collectively increased by approximately 25,000 services during the quarter, now accounting for over 198,000 services, or 2 per cent, of the NBN wholesale market.
Meanwhile, the decline in Sky Muster services continued, with a decrease of almost 6,000 services during the March quarter to now be slightly above 96,000 services.
“There is flexibility for consumers to change plans, whether it be to save money or move to a speed tier that better suits their needs,” ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said.
The report shows that the market share of the top three access seekers – Telstra, TPG and Optus – continued to decline, dropping by 58,000 services collectively, or 0.9 per cent. This reduced their market shares to 42.0 per cent, 22.0 per cent and 13.1 per cent respectively. Conversely, Vocus gained market share – approximately 0.3 per cent or 33,000 services – to its highest level ever of 7.5 per cent.
Other access seekers continued to grow their market shares, now accounting for a combined 15.4 per cent of the market. Led by Aussie Broadband, Superloop and Southern Phone, the smaller providers gained almost 52,000 services in the March quarter.
“The growing competition in the broadband market is good news for consumers as it encourages more choice and competitive pricing for internet services,” Ms Brakey said.
“We have seen sustained market growth quarter on quarter among the smaller broadband providers, reinforcing their presence in the market and the continued demand from consumers for alternative service offerings.”
The number of residential NBN services increased by more than 27,000, or 0.3 per cent, in the March quarter. This is in contrast to the slight decline of 0.1 per cent in the December 2022 quarter.
The report also found consumers are changing NBN service type from Fibre to the Node and Fibre to the Curb to Fibre to the Premises. There was an increase of approximately 45,000 Fibre to the Premises services in the March quarter.
The average bandwidth that NBN supplied through retail providers per service in operation exceeded 3 Mbps in the March quarter, from last quarter’s 2.97 Mbps to 3.01 Mbps.
Further information, including time series data, is available on the ACCC website at NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report.
Background
The ACCC’s NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report contains information on NBN Co’s provision of wholesale services to retail service providers. It does not report on the services supplied by retail service providers to end users. Retail service information is available via the ACCC’s Internet Activity record keeping rule report.
Retail service providers use NBN Co’s wholesale access service to supply retail services to their own customers or, alternatively, to supply a wholesale service to another (usually smaller) retail service provider.
Most small retail service providers do not directly connect with NBN Co, instead reselling services that they buy from larger providers such as Telstra, TPG and Optus.