The consumer watchdog has launched an inquiry into the standard of service NBN Co is giving retailers and consumers as complaints about the network continue to rise.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will hold a public inquiry that will also consider whether regulation is required to improve consumers' experience.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims said what happens at wholesale level on the NBN can flow through to the retail level and affect customer experience.

"We are very concerned about the high number of complaints from consumers around poor customer experiences, particularly in relation to customers connecting to NBN services and having faults repaired," Mr Sims said.

"One of the main focuses of our inquiry will be whether there are appropriate incentives for NBN Co to remedy service failures, along with the adequacy of compensation available to wholesale customers, to ensure consumers in turn are provided appropriate redress when things go wrong."

Unless improvements are made now, a significant proportion of consumers will be affected by issues as the NBN rollout continues, the ACCC said.

A discussion paper will be released in December seeking feedback, with submissions due in the first quarter of 2018 and the inquiry expected to be completed by December the same year.

Earlier this week, an ACCC's draft report on the communications industry showed consumers were concerned about NBN connection and activation problems, as well as fault rectification and slow internet speeds.

And recent figures from the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman show NBN complaints are rising at a faster rate than the number of users.

The proportion of NBN customers complaining about faults to the rose to 0.66 per cent in the 12 months to June 30, from 0.50 per cent a year earlier, a TIO report showed.

There were 16,221 NBN fault complaints from 2.44 million users in 2016/17, compared to 5,506 complaints from 1.10 million users a year earlier.