The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released its latest report on the wholesale NBN market, with its findings showing more and more Australians are supercharging their broadband speeds.
The ACCC’s new Wholesale Market Indicators Report covers the quarter between September and December of 2020, tallying telco data to provide a snapshot into the services NBN Co supplies to broadband providers (that’s telcos such as Telstra, Optus, TPG and iiNet).
While this report doesn’t look at the plans and connections offered by NBN providers to customers and businesses, it does deliver an overall view on speed tiers, connection types and overall number of services operated by the telcos themselves, which in turn indicates which speeds and plans are most popular with Australian NBN users.
ACCC: Australians want faster NBN
According to the ACCC, there are now over 8.1 million Australian homes and businesses connected to the NBN, with 279,347 coming on board in the last quarter – around the time that the NBN rollout was declared complete by the Australian Government.
Over those 8 million-plus connections, almost 68% – or just under 5.5 million – are on plans with maximum speeds of 50Mbps or faster. As of December last year, this included 4,200, 757 connected on NBN 50 plans, and 1,292,305 connected to plans with speeds equal to or greater than 100Mbps.
Compare those figures to three years ago, when just 16.2% of fixed line connections were on speed tiers of 50Mbps and up. In December 2017, only 559,807 connections were considered to be ‘high speed’ as per the below table, with a massive 83.8% of services on slower plans of 25Mbps or less.
Back in 2019, we also looked at the sharp uptake in faster NBN connections, when more than 2.7 million connections – or 56% of total services provided – were on plans of 50Mbps and up. Two years on, and with even faster plans available to residential customers (namely NBN 250 and NBN 1000), the gap between ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ NBN continues to narrow – particularly as high-speed NBN plans become more affordable.
“Most customers now use the higher speed tiers, which is a result of more retail service providers promoting higher speed plans,” said ACCC Chair Rod Sims in response to this quarter’s report.
“NBN Co’s new incentives to retail service providers, such as its ‘Focus on Fast’ promotion, is welcome as many Australians now work and study from home at least some of the time.”
NBN Co has launched several campaigns to encourage both providers and customers to move to faster speed tiers, such as its Hot 100 wholesale discount promotion in early 2020, and the launch of a new, cheaper NBN 100/20 speed tier with slightly slower upload speeds.
However, the nation-wide lockdowns in 2020 may have also played a part in more Aussies upgrading their plan speeds, as millions of families transitioned to working and studying from home. The increase in time online saw many of us look to speed up our connections, and led to NBN Co offering free wholesale capacity boosts to allow providers to offer less congested services at no extra cost.
How to save on a fast NBN plan
Ongoing introductory discounts implemented by NBN providers have given new customers a good reason to get on board with a faster internet plan. If you’re considering upgrading to NBN 50, NBN 100, or even NBN 250 or 1000, there’s a range of money-saving deals available right now to make the transition a little easier on your wallet, including six or 12-month price cuts from Telstra, Dodo, Optus, TPG, Superloop, Kogan and Tangerine.
NBN 50 & NBN 100 deals
The following table shows a selection of published cheap Premium Evening Speed (NBN 100) plans on Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of standard monthly cost, from the lowest to highest, and then by alphabetical order of provider. Use our comparison tool to see plans from a range of other providers. This is a selection of products with links to a referral partner.
The following table shows a selection of published cheap Standard Plus Evening Speed (NBN 50) plans on Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of standard monthly cost, from the lowest to highest, and then by alphabetical order of provider. Use our comparison tool to see plans from a range of other providers. This is a selection of products with links to a referral partner.
NBN 250 & NBN 1000 deals
If you’re looking for something even faster, you can also save when switching to super and ultra-fast NBN plans from Aussie Broadband, Kogan, Superloop and Telstra. These offers are only available to customers with Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) and selected Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) NBN connection types, so you’ll need to check your address with your provider at sign-up to see if your home qualifies.
NBN 1000 Plans Compared
The following table shows selected published NBN 1000 plans on Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of their standard monthly cost, from lowest to highest, then alphabetically. Use our comparison tool to see plans from a range of providers. This is a selection of products with links to referral partners.
| Brand | Features | Max Data**/billing period | Advertised Cost^^/billing period | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Unlimited NBN Ultra-Fast
min. cost $129 over one month |
Unlimited | $129 | |
 |
min. cost $139.95 over one month |
3TB | $139.95 | Go To Site |
 |
min. cost $148.90 for first month |
Unlimited | $148.90 | Go To Site |
 |
min. cost $149 over first month |
Unlimited | $149 | Go To Site |
 |
NBN1000 Unlimited
min. cost $149.99 over one month |
Unlimited | $149.99 | |
 |
NBN1000 Liimitless
min. cost $154.99 over one month |
Unlimited | $154.99 | |
 |
min. cost $4,419 over 24 months |
Unlimited | $180 | Go To Site |
 View all NBN plans listed on Canstar Blue |
**^^View important information | |||
NBN 250 Plans Compared
The following table shows selected published unlimited NBN 250 plans on Canstar Blue’s database, listed in order of their standard monthly cost, from lowest to highest, then alphabetically. Use our comparison tool to see plans from a range of providers. This is a selection of products with links to referral partners.
| Brand | Features | Max Data**/billing period | Advertised Cost^^/billing period | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Unlimited NBN Superfast – Flexi
min. cost $109 over one month |
Unlimited | $109 | |
|
min. cost $119.95 over one month |
Unlimited | $119.95 | Go To Site |
|
min. cost $128.90 for first month |
Unlimited | $128.90 | Go To Site |
|
min. cost $129 over first month |
Unlimited | $129 | Go To Site |
|
NBN250 Unlimited
min. cost $129.99 over one month |
Unlimited | $129.99 | |
|
NBN250 Liimitless
min. cost $134.99 over one month |
Unlimited | $134.99 | |
 |
NBN 250
min. cost $249 over first month |
Unlimited | $135 | |
|
min. cost $3,459 over 24 months |
Unlimited | $140 | Go To Site |
| View all NBN plans listed on Canstar Blue |
**^^View important information | |||
Telstra still Australia’s biggest NBN provider
In addition to recording the speed of connections offered by providers, the ACCC’S report also looked at the market share of major telcos. Telstra continues to dominate the Australian broadband space, with 45.5% of NBN services connected to a Telstra plan. In second place is TPG, with around 24.5%, followed by Optus (15.5%), Dodo and iPrimus (7.1%), and Aussie Broadband (4.2%).
The report also broke down the NBN technology types most in use across the country. As of December 2020, over 1.5 million Australians were connected via FTTP, and 1.9 million through HFC – meaning there’s a huge number of Australians who may qualify for superfast NBN plans. However, Fibre to the Node (FTTN) still remains the most commonly used form of fixed-line NBN connection, accounting for well over 3 million residential and business services Australia-wide.
Related articles
- Save $240 on Telstra NBN 1000 plans
- Aussie Broadband’s NBN 1000 deal
- Superloop offers $120 discount on super-fast NBN
- The top 5 best NBN deals
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