First it was fibre to the node, now they are going for fibre to the home (or premises). This essentially connects homes and businesses to a new much faster network and leaves Telstra copper alone. Telstra will finally have a major player to compete with. Well done to the government for having the balls to make such a decision. It's what should have been done 10 years ago!

Yeah the NBN is a great thing in some ways - who wouldn't want a 100Mbps connection straight to their home (with potential for faster speeds in the future), but I'm not entirely sure that Telstra will totally be left out of this. The regulatory reform paper which the government announced in conjunction with the new NBN plan calls for a structural separation of Telstra's wholesale and retail branches, and of course Telstra's existing infrastructure of dark fibre throughout many Australian metro areas is a good backbone on which the government can build the NBN in a cost effective way.

Telstra and Optus are the big telco players in this and the ones with the cash to chip in on the NBN so unless Telstra remains steadfast agains the government's separation proposal, it wouldn't be surprising to see it join the NBN corporation. We can only wait and see what might happen, as there are a number of ways it can turn out.

It is a great area for discussion though. What does everyone else think about the NBN's implications and Telstra's role in the new network?