Internet providers opt for national reach

More NBN retail providers are opting for national reach with “at least seven” access seeker groups acquiring services into 117 out of the 121 NBN points of interconnect.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in its quarterly wholesale data release that this was “up from 95 POIs at the end of the March quarter.”

“All 121 POIs have at least six providers connected, including five providers (Telstra, Optus, TPG, Vocus and Aussie Broadband) who are connected at all POIs,” the ACCC said.

“MyRepublic are at 99 of the NBN POIs and have plans to connect at all 121 POIs in the near future. Vodafone are at 91 of the POIs.”

ACCC chair Rod Sims said the expansion would be “good for competition” and showed “that retail service providers with smaller market share like Vodafone and MyRepublic are connecting customers at a greater number of points of interconnect.”

Average CVC per user rose from 1.55Mbps in March 2018 to 1.66Mbps in June 2018.

Overall market shares of the main players remained stable, the ACCC said.

Almost 1.5 million customers are now on the NBN 50Mbps tier, up 47 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Meanwhile, "the number of 25Mbps plans declined by 15 percent in relation to the previous quarter while the number of 12Mbps services increased five percent and 100Mbps services fell three percent,” the ACCC said.

The increase in 12Mbps users may be unwelcome news for NBN Co, which has been suggesting it could axe the tier in future (in line with some RSPs, which have already dumped it).