The majority of subscribers to Australia's national broadband network (NBN) are now on speed plans of 50Mbps or higher, but nearly a quarter are still on the lowest-tier plan.
These are among the findings of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) latest quarterly Wholesale Market Indicators Report.
According to the report, nearly 4.8 million Australian premises are now connected to the NBN, representing a 6.8% increase from the previous quarter.
As of the end of the quarter, 56% of all NBN customers were subscribed to plans of 50Mbps or higher, with roughly 2.3 million on 50Mbps tier plans and 400,000 on 100Mbps plans.
This was attributed to a nearly 50% reduction in the number of customers subscribed to the 25Mbps tier plan, as a result of NBN Co's Focus on 50 promotion, which offered discounts to the network's retail service provider customers to encourage them to upgrade their 25Mbps customers to 50Mbps plans.
But the number of customers on the lowest tier 12Mbps plan increased slightly to nearly 1.2 million, a figure which is likely to add to the disappointment many Australians feel in the outcome of the NBN project, which was originally conceived as a forward-looking all fiber network but changed by the current government into a multi-technology mix of fiber and existing copper connections.