If the NBN Co doesn’t closely monitor its pricing, some service providers who offer both broadband and mobile services may turn to “encouraging consumers to take up alternative network options, such as wireless services", the report says. These services may be more cost-effective for the telcos to provide. The NBN Co has recently been more flexible with its pricing, including discounting the wholesale cost of bandwidth. This temporary measure has helped with customer experience, but with long-term pricing still being determined, the ACCC warned any “ongoing uncertainty” could see customers choosing alternatives. ACCC chairman Rod Sims told Fairfax Media this was the "beauty of competition" and it would "keep the NBN on its toes". He said the NBN Co was "well aware" of the risk 5G posed to retaining its customers, and it would force the company to focus more on providing better services at appropriate prices. Loading "People are already going mobile-only and are watching Netflix on a smaller screen. We don't want to force people to use a monopoly."

Future 5G mobile networks could potentially deliver up to 10Gbps, which is more than most current fixed-line broadband services, with the additional benefit of portability. Already, the lower cost of mobile services with more data and inclusions suggests service providers are looking to compete with fixed broadband services. But so far broadband subscribers are able to get up to unlimited data, while mobile plans offer much lower data caps and there is no guidance on how much data 5G mobile services will offer. An NBN Co spokeswoman said future 5G networks and the NBN would “likely play very different roles”. She said users on the network downloaded “huge amounts of data” with usage close to 200GB a month, with the figure set to increase over time. The ACCC report said this figure was skewed upwards by a small proportion of “very high users” and the median download figure of 100GB a month was an "informative estimate". “By contrast 5G will enable very high speeds and low-latency for end-users but seems unlikely to be able to deliver the kind of monthly data volumes that are being consumed by end-users on the nbn network," the spokeswoman said. A Finder survey of 2000 people recently found 80 per cent of Australians were unwilling to pay more for better broadband, but only 40 per cent were satisfied with their current connection.

Data usage across mobile and broadband services has continued to surge, with both showing significant growth in the past few years, though mobile data usage remains significantly below broadband. The ACCC also repeated calls for the NBN to be separated, saying privatisation of the network would provide an opportunity to deliver effective infrastructure-based competition. "This form of infrastructure-based competition would encourage ongoing investment in network upgrades and deliver price benefits and improved services to consumers over time," the report said. The ACCC voiced its concern that if the government did not consider measures to help facilitate the split soon, it would become too costly, which could in turn deter the separation. It recommended that the government continue planning for the break-up of the NBN and said it should ensure that measures were in place to enable separation into competing networks. with AAP