RSPs purchasing more capacity per nbn user

The nbn's retail service providers are purchasing more capacity per user in response to temporary effective price cuts from nbn co, according to the ACCC’s latest nbn wholesale market indicators report.

Operators purchased an average of 1.53 Mbps of connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) per user during the December quarter, up 38% from the average of 1.11 Mbps purchased in the September quarter.

The increase follows nbn co’s temporary credit offer in December for RSPs acquiring 50% more CVC per user.

“We are pleased to see such a large jump in the CVC acquired by retailers from nbn co this quarter. With this level of CVC consumers will have faster broadband speeds and hopefully less congestion during peak evening periods,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims commented.

“nbn co’s response to retailers’ concerns about CVC pricing seems to have had an impact on the amount of CVC being acquired, which we believe will benefit consumers through better quality broadband. We hope nbn co and retailers can continue to work together to ensure the level of CVC needed for a good customer experience is maintained.”

But despite nbn co making 50 Mbps access virtual circuits (AVC) available for the price of the previous 25 Mbps AVC baseline, the most popular speed tier remained 25 Mbps, accounting for 54.3% of all services during the quarter.

The quarterly report also shows that a fifth broadband provider was connected to all 121 of the nbn’s points of interconnect during the quarter, with other smaller players continuing to increase their point of interconnect access.

In total there are 27 retail service provider groups directly connected to the nbn, with Telstra, Optus, TPG, Vocus and now Aussie Broadband connected to all 121 points of interconnect.

The number of services connected to the nbn grew by nearly 500,000 to 3.5 million during the quarter.

Telstra maintained its leading market share of just under half (49.3%) of all wholesale services provided over the nbn, but its 55% share in regional areas is a significant decrease from the market situation prior to the nbn rollout when the company had a well over 60% market share, the ACCC said.

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