In its seventh quarterly NBN Wholesale Market Indicators Report, the competition watchdog said the most popular plans were those offering 25Mbps download speeds, which accounted for 55% of all those connected.

The take-up for 12Mbps was 29% and only 4% opted for 50Mbps plans, according to the report.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims said there was a clear indication that competition was increasing among retail service providers as they had built enough scale to directly connect with the NBN at points of interconnection.

“Some of the small players are experiencing rapid growth and this shows promise for future competition. Direct connection will allow smaller retail service providers to have more control over their network in terms of how much connectivity virtual circuit they provision.”

The report found that more CVC was being acquired per user – from 1.09Mbps per user at the end of June to 1.11Mbps at the end of September.

Sims said this was encouraging as provisioning adequate CVC was essential if RSPs were to ensure households and businesses could get the speeds they were promised.

“The ACCC’s current consultation proposing more detailed reporting by NBN Co should improve our understanding of CVC provisioning and use, particularly concerning times when congestion limits are reached," he added.

The report also found that the proportion of broadband access services acquired at metropolitan POIs had gone up from 33% in September 2016 to 41% in the current quarter.

Key findings in the September report:

• NBN Co was supplying a total of 3,038,483 wholesale broadband access services (up from 2,511,392 services in the June quarter).
• Demand for aggregate network capacity (CVC) continued to increase, with NBN Co contracted to supply 3452Gbps (up from 2820Gbps in the June quarter).
• The amount of CVC acquired per user increased to 1.11Mbps (up from 1.09Mbps per user in the June quarter).
• The number of premises connected via HFC almost doubled.
• There are 26 access seeker groups directly connected to NBN Co’s network. Of these, the top four (Telstra, Optus, TPG Group and Vocus) are connected at all 121 POIs and:
  • at all 121 POIs there is at least one additional access seeker;
  • at 112 of the POIs there are at least two additional access seekers; and
  • at 71 of the POIs there are at least three more access seekers.