Telstra, TPG, Optus lost in NBN wholesale market: ACCC

Telstra, TPG and Optus have lost wholesale market share for NBN services in Australia during the first quarter of 2022, ACCC’s latest NBN Wholesale Market Indicators report said.
Smaller broadband providers increased their market share in the NBN wholesale market in Australia in the March 2022 quarter. The report looks at the wholesale market for NBN services, particularly the residential broadband services that retailers buy from NBN to sell to consumers.

Wholesale market shares declined for Telstra (down 0.3 percentage points to 43.7 percent), TPG (down 0.3 percentage points to 23.3 percent) and Optus (down 0.3 percentage points to 13.9 percent) in the first three months of this year.

The NBN market share of Vocus, the fourth-largest telco whose brands include Commander and Dodo, remained steady at 7.3 percent, ACCC said.

The combined market share of all other retail service providers increased by almost one percentage point (84,414 additional services) to 11.8 percent. This growth was led by Aussie Broadband, which increased its market share to 6.1 percent (up 0.5 percentage points).

“The smaller internet providers are growing, and in doing so they are increasing competition in the residential broadband market,” ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said. “The presence of smaller players with competitive offers is keeping the larger providers on their toes.”

The report shows that nearly 8.7 million residential broadband services are now on the NBN, and almost three-quarters of those are high speed plans of at least 50 Mbps or more.

The number of high speed services over 100 Mbps fell by around 140,000 services, or by 40 percent, in the March 2022 quarter. There are more than eight times as many very high speed services connected to the NBN than in late-2020 when the promotion began.

50 Mbps service was the preferred speed tier for 58 per cent of consumers in March 2022.

Retail service providers acquired slightly more Connectivity Virtual Circuit (bandwidth) capacity over the March quarter. Average capacity acquired per user increased from 2.73 Mbps in the December 2021 quarter to 2.76 Mbps in March 2022.

Broadband providers expanded their presence at NBN’s 121 Points of Interconnect (POIs), which are the physical locations where providers can connect to the NBN.

There were at least 13 providers directly acquiring NBN services at 121 of the POIs, and 15 directly connected at 115 of the POIs.