The ACCC has released its initial quarterly National Broadband Network (NBN) wholesale market indicators report for the period ending 31 March 2016.
The reports will provide a detailed view of the size and structure of emerging NBN wholesale access markets as the NBN becomes more widely available over NBN access technologies. The reports will not provide a view over the structure of emerging retail markets, however, as retail service providers can choose to acquire NBN access services or resell services offered by NBN access seekers.
“This new report will help the continued development of competitive NBN markets that benefit broadband consumers,” ACCC Commissioner Cristina Cifuentes said.
“In particular, providing information on the state of the market will help service providers in the NBN environment make informed planning decisions so that they are better placed to tailor their services and products to what consumers want.”
“The ACCC has been working with NBN to improve the amount and quality of information that it provides to the industry and consumers,” Ms Cifuentes noted.
Key points from the initial report
- As at 31 March 2016, NBN Co was supplying 941,235 wholesale access services and had contracted to supply 1,004 gigabits per second of aggregate network capacity (Connectivity Virtual Circuits) over the NBN.
- NBN access seekers were present at the 121 listed points of interconnection (POIs), of which 115 had 3 or more Access Seekers.
- Telstra (ASX code: TLS) was acquiring the most NBN wholesale access services on a national basis. Most of the remaining wholesale access services were acquired by the TPG group (ASX Code:TPM), Singtel Optus and the M2 group (ASX Code: VOC).
- TPG group was acquiring the most higher speed NBN wholesale access services (50 Mbps and higher), closely followed by Telstra and Singtel Optus.
- Others carriers were also acquiring NBN wholesale access services, but only met the reporting threshold of a 5 percentage point market share in respect of wireless and satellite services.
The report and a guide to interpreting the data it contains is available at: NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report.
Background
The NBN Wholesale market indicators report is provided by NBN Co to the ACCC for publication, pursuant to a disclosure direction issued by the ACCC on 21 March 2016.
The report is comprised of data collected by the ACCC pursuant to the NBN Services in Operation Record Keeping and Reporting Rule.
The report concerns the wholesale access services acquired over the NBN, which are subject to regulation under Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act.
As a wholesale access service can be used by an NBN access seeker to itself supply a retail service, or alternatively to supply a wholesale service to another NBN access seeker or a retail service provider, the report does not provide a view of the structure of NBN retail markets.
In particular, an access seeker that has a relatively small share of NBN wholesale access services can still hold a significant share of NBN retail services where it also resells another service provider’s NBN services. Similarly, there are some service providers who have chosen to only resell NBN services rather than become an NBN access seeker.
The report will be published quarterly with the next report due to be published in late July 2016.
The report provides a count of the number of NBN wholesale access services for:
- each access network technology,
- broad geographic region,
- contracted Data Transfer Rate (speed) tier,
- traffic class, and
- established NBN Access Seeker.
The report also includes data on the aggregated contracted throughput capacity on the NBN – that is, the aggregate contracted capacity across all NBN connectivity virtual circuits, and the number of NBN Access Seekers at NBN Points of Interconnection.
Where NBN Co makes available additional services, for example offering services via HFC technology, these will be included in the report.