NBN gets a much-needed pandemic boost

More than seven million Australian consumers are now connected to the NBN after the activation of 455,000 new services in the three months to 31 March.

The connections were made as available NBN bandwidth per user jumped by 31 per cent during the March quarter, following NBN Co’s boost of the network capacity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ACCC’s latest quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report, shows total Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) per user increased from 1.92Mbps to 2.52Mbps during the March quarter, after NBN Co temporarily provided retail service providers (RSPs) with up to 40 per cent extra capacity at no additional cost.

“We were pleased to see NBN Co and RSPs work together to ensure Australians can stay connected during these unprecedented times,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

“Consumers have been downloading and uploading record amounts of data for online work, school and social activities, which has been essential in helping households get through this challenging situation.”

The report shows smaller RSPs increased their collective share of the NBN wholesale market from 7.5 per cent to 8.1 per during the quarter. Leading this group, Aussie Broadband and Vodafone acquired three per cent and 1.9 per cent of wholesale services respectively.

“It is good to see the trend of smaller RSPs increasing their share in the market continue. More competition means more choice and better services for consumers,” Mr Sims added.

Telstra continued to be NBN Co’s biggest wholesale customer, accounting for 47.6 per cent of all services acquired, followed by TPG with 22 per cent, Optus with 15.3 per cent and Vocus with 7.1 per cent.

The number of higher speed plans (50Mbps and above) taken up by Australian households continued to increase, to comprise 65.4 per cent of all NBN services. Almost 57 per cent of residential NBN plans were 50Mbps plans at 31 March, while 100Mbps plans accounted for 8.6 per cent of all services.

However, more than 2.2 million households remained on 12Mbps and 25Mbps plans. The number of entry-level 12Mbps services remained at about 1.16 million, representing 16.4 per cent of all residential services on the NBN, slightly lower than 17.6 per cent at the end of December 2019.

How has the internet in your area been performing during the pandemic?

5 comments

How has the internet in your area been performing during the pandemic?

My connection has been much faster during the pandemic ... until yesterday!!!

All good until about 9.30am when my connection to some sites, YLC in particular, is abyssmal.

Not sure whether that is due to the many schools in my local area re-opening or a congestion problem at the YLC end.

NB: Had the same problem pre-pandemic with YLC between 10.00am and 1.00pm.

You definitely would not want Fibre to the Node with the Internet and phone dropping out !!

... never mind the speed which is slower than the ADSL

... I am on the 50Mbps plan.

I have fibre to the node and the phone and internet DO NOT drop out and the speed is much faster than ADSL.

 

Lucky you RnR

Unfortunately our copper wires very are old, hence the problem much worse when it is raining or when it is very hot

 

Over all pretty good.  I have a 50MBPS plan over the early May period I was only getting download speed of lestt than 10 MBPS my up load speed were better than that.  Then without any reason or explaination the speeds returned to around 40 MBPS.

All I ac say if the crazies in the government didnt interfere in the original plan we would have a world class system not the hotpotch system we currently have.

Telstra did well out of it .... selling off all the oldcopper wires 

...makes you wonder about the idiots running the NBN

Have not seen a change at all, pay for a 50 plan and get 47 day and night....always. Extremely solid connection.

Both my download speeds (abt. 95Mbps) and upload speeds (abt. 37Mbps) have remained constant. Recommend iiNet (TPG)

5 comments



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