But what happens to the copper remains unclear. Discussions have been going on for years about whether Telstra would extract it and sell it for scrap but no decision has been made. Enquiries by IT Pro confirmed the company has still not decided what to do with the valuable metal.

Recovery would involve great expense in labour and processing. Telstra might also be waiting to see whether a possible change of government in 2013 changes the NBN rollout. The Coalition's alternative fibre-to-the-node (FttN) plan would rely on gaining access to and building on the existing copper network, a policy that CEO David Thodey recently indicated could be beneficial for Telstra.

The copper "is definitely worth something as scrap, although I don't think the company is going to get rich on it," said a Telstra source who asked not to be identified. "Some of it will be left there because it will be more costly to pull it out, but there are definite plans to recycle whatever can be recycled. However, it's still too early to talk details."

Rough calculations suggest both the potential value of the copper assets and the massive logistical effort that would be required to process it to be sizeable. Estimates suggest Telstra currently has up to 154 million kilometres of copper in the ground. While copper wiring comes in many thicknesses, typically used 26 AWG (26 gauge) cable measures 0.405mm in diameter and weighs approximately 1.152 grams per metre of cable. The entire network would therefore comprise at least 177,408 tonnes of raw copper.

Current prices for recycled copper range from approximately $2.30 per kg for thin copper like that used to connect houses, up to $6.50 per kg for higher-grade, thick bundles of copper like that used within much of Telstra's copper network. T1 cables, for example, bundle 25 pairs of 22-gauge copper wires, each strand of which is thicker than 26-gauge – so each metre of T1 would have significantly more copper in it than in the premises access lines.