National Broadband Network speeds could soon improve as retailers are now buying more bandwidth, the competition watchdog says.
Providers acquired more of what is known as Connectivity Virtual Circuit (CVC) in September than they did in June, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in its latest report on NBN Co.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said adequate CVC is essential for households and businesses to get the speeds they are promised, and the watchdog is closely monitoring how much CVC is being bought and used.
The most popular speed of NBN connections is the second tier 25 megabits per second, he said, which is used by 55 per cent of all services.
Just four per cent use 50 megabits per second and 12 per cent are using 100 megabits per second.
Mr Sims also said it was clear that competition is developing among NBN providers.
"Some of the small players are experiencing rapid growth and this shows promise for future competition," he said.
"Direct connection will allow smaller retail service providers to have more control over their network in terms of how much CVC they provision."
NBN overhauled its pricing structure in June to make it more attractive to retailers, after smaller operators expressed concern about high access charges for high-speed services.
The ACCC's report into the NBN wholesale market tracks the number of connections to the network and shows most connections are via fibre to the premises (FTTP) and fibre to the node (FTTN).
The seventh quarterly report says the number of premises connected via hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) almost doubled in the September quarter.
Mr Sims says the NBN rollout in capital cities is expanding, with the report showing the proportion of broadband access in metropolitan areas has increased by about 10 per cent in the year to September.
