The report showed that about 8.3 million services were now connected to the network which is being rolled out by the NBN Co.

ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said more than two-thirds of all NBN connections were now 50Mbps or above, and about 17% were using connections that delivered 100Mbps or above.

On the downside, there were almost 465,000 fewer ‘Home Fast’ (100Mbps) and 100/40Mbps services in the same quarter, which the ACCC said was partly due to the end of a particular promotion. Other promotions aimed at even higher speeds had now been introduced.

“New incentives offered by NBN Co have enabled retailers to allow consumers to test or shift to higher speed services, particularly services with speeds of 250Mbps or above,” said Brakey.

The ACCC report showed that there was "significant" take-up of services above 250Mbps - which it calls superfast - in the first quarter, with the number growing from 11,136 at the end of the final quarter of 2020 to 490,000 at the end of March this year.

The number of connections that the ACCC calls ultrafast — 50Mbps to 100Mbps — grew from 9924 to 83,000 by the end of March.

“Before moving to higher speed services, the ACCC recommends that consumers consider the value of new promotions, how long they run for, and how they align with their particular needs,” said Brakey.

“Many consumers will continue to be adequately served running multiple devices on plans with speeds of 50Mbps or below.”

The report pointed out that service providers bought a little more bandwidth in the March 2021 quarter, which led to total connectivity virtual circuit per user increasing marginally from 2.44Mbps to 2.54Mbps.

“It’s important that retail service providers acquire CVC capacity in-line with the growth and features of their customers’ services, to ensure consumers receive the service they are paying for,” said Brakey.

The ACCC said wholesale market share was more or less stable in the March quarter, and only Telstra’s share fell slightly from 45.5% to 45.1%. Smaller RSPs were now acquiring 7.8% of all services, up from 7.5% in December 2020 and 6.2% in March 2020.

The number of wholesale access seekers connecting to all 121 NBN points of interconnection was unchanged and at least 11 providers were acquiring wholesale services from NBN Co at all PoIs.