There are now 143 Gigabit services on the NBN

A new report based on data from NBN includes details on the takeup of super-fast broadband services with speeds far in excess of the usual National Broadband Network downstream limit of 100 megabits per second.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today released the latest edition of its quarterly NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report. It is the first to be issued since the ACCC decided it would incorporate more data into the report.

That data includes details of services sold by smaller telcos such as Aussie Broadband and MyRepublic.

The report, which is a snapshot of the NBN wholesale market as of 31 March, also details the number of 250/100Mbps, 250/100Mbps, 500/200Mbps, 1000/400Mbps services. Most RSPs only offer services at NBN’s 12/1Mbps, 25/5Mbps, 50/20Mbps, and 100/40Mbps tiers (NBN’s ‘Multi-Technology Mix’ means most households will not be able to achieve speeds in excess of 100Mbps).

However, the new report reveals that there are 143 households or businesses that have purchased services at the Gigabit (1000/400Mbps) speed tier. That vast majority of those are through MyRepublic which staged a 2017 competition to promote the speed tier. (MyRepublic's website does not appear to promote Gigabit speeds; the company has been approached for comment.)

The ACCC report states that as of the end of March, MyRepublic had 98 Gigabit services in operation. Optus had 18, TPG four, Telstra three, Aussie Broadband one, and other access seekers 19. (According to Tasmanian RSP Launtel, it provides 16 of those 19 services.)

There were 294 250/100Mbps services, with 123 out of 294 sold through Aussie Broadband. There were also 14 500/200Mbps services.

Although the new ACCC report includes far greater detail on contracted CVC capacity at NBN’s Points of Interconnect, the competition watchdog revealed in March that it had decided against revealing the ratio of capacity to number of end users across individual telcos.

The ACCC said at the time that Telstra, Optus, NBN and industry group Communications Alliance had indicated to it “that due to differences in how NBN access seekers acquired and provisioned CVC across their NBN services, such information might be misinterpreted if published”.

The report reveals that average contracted CVC per end user has continued to climb, growing from 1.52Mbps in at the end of December to 1.55Mbps at the end of March.

The new report also shows that impact of NBN’s efforts to increase the take-up of 50Mbps services. During the quarter, 50Mbps services sold by NBN grew from 158,959 to 989,360

“Nearly 1 million customers are now using a plan with 50Mbps speeds,” ACCC chairperson Rod Sims said. “This is a remarkable shift in just three months.”

“We are pleased to see retailers taking up the higher speed services and enabling their customers to shift to 50Mbps plans,” Sims said. “This is good for consumers who can enjoy the benefits of higher speeds.” 

[Correction - this article originally mis-attributed 250Mbps services to MyRepublic instead of Aussie Broadband.]