NBN has announced a surge in end users on its 50 megabits per second speed tier, with the company today revealing that it expects 1.1 million additional end-users to have 50/20Mbps broadband services by June.
Historically the 50/20Mbps product has been an unpopular choice. However, NBN in December detailing a plan to boost uptake of faster speed tiers.
NBN announced a 12-month discount on its 50Mbps access charge — AVC, which is charged per service — reducing its price to that of NBN’s 25Mbps product. Prior to the discount, around 80 per cent of end users had purchased 25Mbps or slower services.
At the end of December 2017, there were only some 600,000 households and businesses on 50Mbps or 100Mbps plans, representing some 17 per cent of end users on the National Broadband Network.
Figures released by NBN said that to date, 200,000 end users have now been moved to the promotional 50Mbps plan; about 50,000 are new orders while the others are upgrades from 25Mbps services.
The company also said that around 30 per cent of new orders every week were for the discounted 50Mbps plan. Before the December price cut, it was around 3 per cent, according to NBN.
The company expects that by June, some 1.6 million end users will have 50Mbps or 100Mbps, representing more than a third of NBN subscribers.
NBN has previously outlined what it says is a “land grab” for market share by retail service providers (RSPs), which it said was driving people towards lower-speed plans.
NBN in December also announced a temporary credit offer for acquiring 50 per cent more capacity per user (CVC). Last week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission revealed a significant uptick in the purchase of CVC by RSPs in the last quarter of 2017.
Because CVC is shared between end users, the amount of CVC purchased can have a significant impact on end users’ experience on the new network.
NBN’s December announcement included the unveiling a new 50Mbp product that will include an amount of CVC.